How to get certified in child care

Child Care Licensing & Red Cross Courses

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• Child care licensing is regulated at the state level, often requires on-site visits from inspectors, and typically requires candidates to meet a myriad of highly specific criteria. At the American Red Cross, we do not license facilities, nor is our certification intended to meet state child care licensing requirements. Instead, our child care certification courses can help provide you with a base of knowledge that allows you to responsibly care for children and infants inside and outside the home. If you're interested in becoming a state-licensed child care provider, please contact the licensing agency in your area.

  Find a Class

  The American Red Cross offers three child care certification courses, each of which can you help build the skills necessary for providing high-quality care to infants and children when their parents cannot be with them.

  Our Babysitting Basics course gives those ages 11 and older information on caring for kids in their neighborhood. And our Babysitter's Training course gives people ages 11 to 15 more in-depth instruction on babysitting and child care. As a professional caregiver seeking state licensure, our Advanced Child Care Training course can help you gain (or refresh) your skills. And although childcare licensing requirements differ by state, by reviewing and practicing the skills covered in the course we can help you prepare for the licensing procedure.

  In the Advanced Child Care Training Course, you'll learn:

  • Basic Care for Infants and Children
  • Child Behavior and Discipline
  • Age-Appropriate Activities
  • Safety
  • Professionalism
  • Leadership

  First Aid and CPR/AED Training

  The childcare licensing agency in your state may require you to become certified in First Aid and CPR/AED. To help you achieve certification, we offer in-person and online courses designed to give you the skills needed to help in times of crisis. Once successfully completed, you'll receive certification credentials for two years, and free access to our refresher materials throughout your certification period, which allows you to practice your skills on your schedule.

  Certification Made Simple. Fast. Easy. Digital.

  The American Red Cross makes babysitting training and certification fast, simple and easy. And with Red Cross Digital Certificates you'll get anytime, anywhere access to your certificates; plus the ability to print, share, and download them wherever and whenever you like. Digital certificates can be viewed, printed or shared online and can be accessed anytime through your Red Cross Account. Each certificate includes a unique ID and a QR code which meets employment requirements and allows employers to easily confirm your certificate is valid. Class participants and employers can visit https://www. redcross.org/take-a-class/digital-certificate and enter the ID found on the digital certificate (or scan the QR code with a standard QR reader using a smart device) to access a copy of the valid certificate with student training information.

  Click here for instructions on accessing your certification online.

How to Become a Certified Child Care Provider

Are you considering a career as a certified child care provider?

A career as a certified child care provider can provide tremendous personal fulfillment for the right person who loves working with kids, has a passion for education and wants to make a difference.

As a child care provider, you’ll have the opportunity to work with children each day and support them through social, emotional, physical, cognitive and linguistic development during their most critical years for early learning.

Earning professional child care certifications will help you enhance your skills as a child care provider, earn the trust of parents and demonstrate to employers your commitment to excelling in your field. You’ll also find plenty of opportunities for career advancement, including self-employment, teaching and child care administration.

If you’re excited to learn how to become a child care provider, we’ve created this guide especially for you. We describe exactly what certified child care providers do and detail the requirements for earning professional certification. We’ll explain the certification process and highlight some additional steps you can take to excel in your career. Finally, we’ll highlight some of the most exciting career opportunities that are available to early childhood educators.

What is a Certified Child Care Provider?

Child care providers are responsible for providing kids with routine care, ensuring their safety, supporting their social, physical and cognitive development with age-appropriate learning activities, and creating a positive environment that minimizes stress and promotes learning and growth.

Certified child care workers perform duties that include:

• Supervising children from infancy up to 12 years of age to ensure their safety
• Organizing mealtimes and preparing meals and snacks for kids
• Helping kids develop self-care routines, including personal hygiene
• Planning lessons and organizing activities to support cognitive development
• Ensuring kids get enough physical activity
• Supporting kids as they develop emotionally and socially as part of the community
• Teaching social and life skills such as manners, mutual respect and conflict resolution
• Recording observations of child behaviors, development and interests

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, child care workers in the United States earn an average salary of $24,230 per year. Child care providers may find employment in child care centers or private households, or they may choose to open their own in-home daycare center to provide  services to families in their local neighborhoods. To meet the needs of parents who work during the day, child care centers usually open between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. each morning and close between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. each night.

Requirements for Becoming a Certified Child Care Provider

To become a certified child care provider, you will need to earn a professional credential or designation from one of two nationally recognized organizations: the Council for Professional Recognition, which offers the Child Development Associate (CDA) designation, and the National Child Care Association, which offers the Certified Childcare Professional (CCP) designation. While the requirements for these designations differ in several ways, they are both accepted as professional credentials for child care workers.

Earning Your CCP Certification

The CCP certification is administered by the National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA) Commission, an organization established in 1991 to encourage quality and recognize achievement in early child care programs.

To meet the requirements of the CCP evaluation process, you must:

• Possess a high school diploma or the equivalent education.
• Be 18 years of age or older.
• Speak, read and write English enough to perform duties as a child care professional.
• Select a CCP Field Counselor to guide and evaluate you throughout the certification process.
• Accrue 720 hours of experience (approximately 18 weeks of full-time employment) working with kids from infants to six years of age at a center-based care facility.
• Complete 180 hours of education or training across nine professional ability areas (see below).
• Pass the National Early Childhood Education accreditation exam.
• Prepare and submit a professional development portfolio.
• Successfully participate in an observational assessment of your job performance.
• Obtain letters of endorsement from a child care colleague and a child care director.
• Complete two parent evaluations.
• Submit two writing samples with relevance to professional activities.
• Establish plans for ongoing professional development in early childhood education.
• Complete the application review process through the NECPA Professional Standards Council.

Successful applicants for the CCP certification are required to demonstrate competency across nine professional ability areas:

1. Establishing and maintaining a safe and nurturing learning environment.
2. Promoting cognitive, physical and social/emotional development.
3. Creating purposeful learning through curriculum and content.
4. Being inclusive and culturally responsive.
5. Demonstrating effective management of the learning environment.
6. Showing a commitment to professional development and leadership in early child care.
7. Using assessments to plan learning opportunities and document outcomes via recorded observations.
8. Exhibiting knowledge and practical application of child development theory.
9. Displaying computer literacy and supporting learning through technology.

Your journey toward CCP certification begins on the NECPA website, where you’ll be able to designate a field counselor for your application process and purchase a CCP enrollment packet containing the required documents and additional instructions to facilitate your application.

Once you have completed the requirements of the enrollment packet, you will submit a CCP Observation and Assessment Request Form, along with copies of your enrollment packet documents and the required assessment fees. Once your documents have been reviewed, your field counselor will administer a performance-based assessment by observing your interactions with kids in a child care setting.

Your entire application will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Council. If you are successful, you will receive the CCP designation. The designation is valid for a period of two years, after which it must be renewed. To renew CCP designations, child care professionals must provide evidence of their participation in 24 hours of continuing education every two years.

Earning Your CDA Certification

The CDA Certification is administered by the Council for Professional Recognition through the Child Development Associate National Credentialing Program, established in 1975 to assess, recognize and improve the performance of child care professionals.

In applying for the CDA credential, you may choose from four different pathways to certification depending on the setting in which you work. The four settings are:

1. Center-Based, Preschool – for child care professionals working with children from ages three to five.
2. Center-Based, Infant-Toddler – for child care professionals working with children from birth to 36 months of age.
3. Family Child Care – for child care professionals working with children from birth to five years of age.
4. Home Visitor – for child care professionals working with families of children from birth to five years of age.

Before applying for the CDA credential, you must:

• Earn a high school diploma or be currently enrolled as a junior or a senior in a high school career and technical program that focuses on early childhood education.
• Complete 120 hours of early childhood education training, with at least 10 training hours in each of eight CDA subject areas:
  • Planning a safe and healthy learning environment
  • Advancing children’s physical and intellectual development
  • Supporting children’s social and emotional development
  • Building productive relationships with families
  • Engaging in program operations management
  • Displaying a commitment to professionalism
  • Observing and recording child behaviors
  • Demonstrating theoretical knowledge of child development and learning
• Complete 480 hours of professional work experience in the chosen child care setting.
• Prepare a CDA Professional Portfolio as instructed in the CDA Competency Standards Book.
• Connect with a CDA Professional Development (PD) Specialist.

Having completed the above requirements, you may submit your CDA application online or complete and submit by mail the paper application provided with the CDA Competency Standards Book. Following acceptance of your application, you will be notified of your eligibility to schedule a CDA Verification Visit and CDA Exam.

During the Verification Visit, the designated PD Specialist will visit your workplace and observe your interactions with the children in your care. They will assess your professional strengths and greatest opportunities for improvement, then submit an evaluation to the Council. The Council will consider the results of the verification visit when determining whether to award you the CDA credential.

You’ll need to complete the CDA exam by setting an appointment at an approved testing facility and reporting there in person. The CDA exam consists of 65 questions – 60 multiple-choice and five scenario-based questions with a descriptive photo and a short narrative. You’ll have an hour and 45 minutes to complete the exam.

Following your exam, a committee with the Council for Professional Recognition will review your application and results, then determine whether to award you the CDA professional designation. If the committee decides that you need additional training, you’ll receive recommendations on how to improve your application.

Excelling as a Child Care Provider

One important similarity between the nine professional ability areas of the CCP and the eight subject areas of the CDA is the requirement for ongoing professional development. Earning your professional designation as a child care provider isn’t just a commitment to educating children, it also represents a commitment to educating yourself, building your skills and expanding your qualifications as a child care provider.

To help you get moving in the right direction, here are three steps you can take to go beyond your professional certification and truly excel as a child care provider.

Complete a Degree Program in Early Childhood Education

Completing a degree program in early childhood education is a way to increase your theoretical knowledge of child development and learning.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are over 1,000 institutions (colleges and universities) in the United States offering associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs in early childhood education. Earning a college degree in early childhood education brings you closer to becoming an expert in your field, gives you an edge in the employment market, and helps you earn the trust and confidence of parents.

Get Experience in Diverse Child Care Settings

Getting work experience in diverse child care settings can broaden your perspective, expose you to new challenges and opportunities, and support your career development as a child care provider. Here are just a few options you could consider:

• Work with preschool-aged kids in a center-based care facility
• Work with infants in a center-based care facility
• Work with kids who have special needs in a center-based care facility
• Volunteer at hospitals for sick children
• Tutor young children in math and reading
• Work as a camp counselor
• Volunteer at an after school program, helping kids with homework or teaching a skill

Pursue Continuing Education & Additional Certifications

As a certified child care provider, you can gain valuable knowledge and insight, enhance your skills and improve your employment prospects by pursuing continuing education and additional certifications related to early childhood education.

Some certifications, such as CPR and First Aid, are required for employment in most centers, while others are optional but may be desirable for employers. Consider taking courses or completing certificate programs in:

• Applied behavior analysis
• Abuse counseling
• Water safety
• Infant care
• Nutrition
• Positive discipline
• Child care administration

Career Opportunities for Early Childhood Educators

There are numerous career pathways available for child care providers who wish to broaden their horizons and take on more responsibility. Some of the best options include:

• Child Care Administrator/Director – You’ll be responsible for managing a center-based care facility, with duties like staff management, budgeting, designing curriculum and programming, and supervising daily operations.
• Preschool Teacher – You’ll work at a preschool, providing education services and routine care for kids between birth and five years of age.
• Kindergarten or Elementary School Teacher – You’ll work for a local school district providing education for children between four and 12 years of age.
• Special Education Teacher – You’ll work with students who have mental, physical, emotional and learning disabilities.
• Self-employed Home-based Daycare Operator – You’ll operate your own home-based child care operation with full control and oversight of your business. You may need to obtain a child care license from your state child services department. You’ll need to create a safe and structured child care environment in your home, market and sell your services in the local neighborhood, communicate with parents, and manage administrative tasks like attendance tracking and tuition payments.

Start Your Own Child Care Center with Procare Solutions

If you’re excited by the prospect of opening your own in-home daycare, you’ll be even more excited at how easy it is to get started with Procare Solutions.

Our child care app are used by over 30,000 child care centers to:

• Manage and automate child care invoices and payment
• Engage parents with direct messaging, mass communications, and newsletters via email or SMS
• Develop and share lesson plans and record observations
• Manage child and family information
• Track child care enrollment and attendance
• …and a lot more

Want to see how Procare makes it easy to start and manage your own child care center?

Request a Demo

Request a demo and talk with one of our friendly Procare experts to get a tailored child care solution for the unique needs of your business.

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how to get a certificate for additional education for children, activate and find out the number

Elena Maksimova

issued a PFDO certificate for a child

Author profile

My son graduated from the third grade. Since the new academic year, I wanted to enroll him in English at an educational center.

But they warned me: I would have to dispose of a certificate for additional education in favor of the center.

I had never heard of such certificates before. It turned out that they have already been introduced in many regions, including here, in the Arkhangelsk region. A certificate is required for every child aged 5-17. The state transfers money to it to pay for additional education: circles, studios and sections. According to the certificate, the child will be able to visit them for free.

In the article I will tell you what certificates give, and describe step by step how I got one for my child and how I disposed of it.

What is the PFDO program

Free children's clubs have always been funded by the state. The palaces of creativity planned how many children would enroll in a circle, and received money for a full group, for example, for 10 people. But then fewer children were enrolled in an unpopular circle, for example, only 4 children, and there were more empty seats than needed. At the same time, paid circles were expensive: for example, for a year of my youngest son’s classes in a robotics circle, I gave 21,600 rubles.

But in 2019-2024, the Ministry of Education is conducting a special project, which includes the PFDO program - personalized financing of additional education. According to it, the state will not transfer money directly to circles, but to each child for a special certificate, and parents will be able to pay for their classes.

PDO group on Vkontakte

Under this system, the free circle will receive state money for those children who actually go there, and not for those whom the management planned to attract, but could not. If the club organizers want more money, they will have to change the program so that more children can sign up.

Paid mugs will be able to become free to accept money for this certificate if they pass government verification. That is, they will prove that they have a quality curriculum and experienced teachers. After that, they will be included in the register of educational programs and it will also be possible to pay for them with a PFDO certificate.

How to get a PFD certificate in Arkhangelsk

As of February 4, 2022, 75 regions participate in PFD. Until the end of 2024, the rest will also join.

Each participating region has a program navigator website. There you can issue a certificate and enroll your child in circles and sections. Some navigators are based on the PDO website, others are based on Inlearno. You won’t know where yours is in advance - you will have to look for your region both there and there.

How the PFDO certificate works

The PFDO certificate is electronic - it does not have a paper form. It is personalized and assigned to every citizen of the Russian Federation aged 5 to 17 inclusive. With its help, the state pays for classes in circles where the child has enrolled. The main thing is that they pass the state check.

Order of the Ministry of Education of Russia dated September 3, 2019

City municipalities themselves determine how they will conduct the PFDO program. They decide how much money to allocate for it and how much each child will get in the new school year.

Decrees on PFDO:
in the Moscow region,
in the Leningrad region,
in the Arkhangelsk region

Each region may have its own list of destinations that will be paid with certificates. For example, in the Moscow region it is technical, artistic, physical culture and sports, military patriotic, natural science, cultural and social and pedagogical. These include circles on the basics of programming, speech development, sports tourism, entertaining ecology, intellectual games, and others.

The certificate has a face value - the amount that can be spent on additional education in the next academic year. It is replenished every academic semester. The denomination depends on the budget of a particular city. For example, in Balakovo, Saratov Region, 2191.6 RUR was allocated for September-December 2019. And in Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic in September-December 2018, the nominal amount was 4163. 7 RUR.

The price of classes in each circle is determined by officials. It is called the standard cost of educational services. When a child enrolls in a circle, funds are deducted from the certificate as payment. There may be several circles. If there is not enough money on the certificate for everything, parents will have to pay the rest of the amount themselves.

I have friends in Bratsk, Irkutsk region. From January to May 2020, the nominal value of the certificate was approximately 9800 R. English cost 1250 R per month, and individual violin lessons - 1650 R. The cost of two circles for 5 months turned out to be 14 500 R. The nominal value of the certificate for this was not enough, and my friends paid 4700 R themselves.

In Urai, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, from September to December 2017, the face value of the certificate was 11,623.52 R. I don’t know how much it was in 2019year, but I know the cost of mugs at this time. If the denomination remained the same, then it would be enough for a short course in robotics for 5030 R, but it would not be possible to pay them a full course for 30,530 R.

The certificate cannot be cashed. If the child does not attend any circle or goes only to paid ones, the money will be returned to the state budget.

PFD certificate comic PDF, 2.8 MB

How I got a PFD certificate for a child

The certificate is issued once and is valid until the child is 18 years old. I live in Arkhangelsk. I issued the certificate online on the navigator for additional education in the Arkhangelsk region. You can do it in person at one of the schools or gymnasiums from the list in the navigator. But the Internet is more convenient for me.

How to get a PDO certificate - video on YouTube

Here's what I did for this:

1. I registered in the navigator and confirmed my email. After that, she got access to the parent's personal account.
2. In my personal account, I indicated the last name, first name, patronymic and date of birth of the child.
3. Sent an application for a certificate. A few days later I saw that he was assigned a number. This meant that we already had the certificate, but now we need to activate it.

How I activated the certificate educational institution in your city. When I clicked the "Activate Certificate" button, a list of children's centers, schools and gymnasiums appeared. My son's gymnasium was also there. I was going to take the documents there, but the class teacher said that you can submit them remotely.

Here are the documents needed:

1. A copy of my son's birth certificate.
2. SNILS son.
3. Application to be included in the PFDO system.
4. Consent to the processing of personal data.

The school already had a copy of the birth certificate. I sent the rest of the documents as scans to the class teacher. Three working days later, a note appeared in the personal account that the certificate was activated. But I didn’t see the denomination - I had to request it separately. I'll tell you more about this.

/prava/school/

Parental rights at school

In 2022, navigators in the regions work differently. For example, in the Arkhangelsk region, you can enter your personal account through public services and not register separately. In the Leningrad and Omsk regions, you need to fill in all the fields on the site.

Parent's passport or other identification may be required for activation.

How I paid for the circle with a certificate

In August 2020, before the start of the school year, a list of all circles in our city appeared in the navigator. I asked in the search for the municipality, the direction of study, age and the ability to pay with a certificate. And I quickly found the right English circle in the list. He had already passed all the checks, and classes could be paid for with a certificate.

On the page of the circle there was a schedule of classes, the number of free places and cost. Lessons lasting 45 minutes were to be held once a week. Subscription for the first half of the year cost 1091.7 R, and for the entire two-year course - 4366.8 R.

/dance/

English, I saw the schedule, the number of children in the group and other useful information. This is convenient: you could immediately figure out when you would have to take your child there.

I pressed the "Sign up" button, and the application went to the educational center. At the same time, I still did not know the value of the certificate. But I hoped that the money would be enough for the first half of the year. To find out the denomination, I requested it in a separate application on the child's page.

The first application was considered for 3 business days. The center checked whether my son had a certificate and invited me to come. There I filled out two applications - for teaching a child in PFDO and for determining a certificate. She also signed an agreement with the center for the provision of educational services.

By this time, the municipality had also considered the second application. The amount appeared in the personal account - 2800 R. Of these, 1091 R have already been reserved for the English circle.

While my son is studying, 60.65 rubles are deducted from the certificate every month. And if he quits the circle, I will write an application for deduction, and the money will no longer go to the center.

In 2022, money is also credited to the certificate account in different ways. In Arkhangelsk, the account is replenished only after the parent signs an agreement with the educational organization. Exactly the amount that is indicated will come, if it does not exceed the set face value. For example, six months of classes cost 12,000 R, and the face value is 15,000 R. Therefore, 12,000 R will be credited to the account. There will be no more “extra” money on the certificate.

At the same time, in other regions, the accrual system may be different - you will have to find out about this from your regional operator.

What you need to know about the PFDO certificate aged 5 to 17 years inclusive. He must be a citizen of the Russian Federation.

To issue a certificate, you need to find your region on the PDO or Inlearno portal and go to the desired navigator site, register, confirm your email and fill out an electronic application. In a few days, the certificate will be issued and its number will appear in your personal account.

Questions about the system of continuing medical education - Continuing Education Portal

List of questions

How to start training?

1. Register on the Portal.

2. Form a five-year training cycle.

3. To maintain and improve your professional level, you can include the educational elements included in the lists of the Portal into your training plan:

• professional development programs providing continuous professional development and professional development;

• various types of interactive educational modules : short online courses, interactive case studies, computer simulators, etc., developed taking into account the procedures for providing medical care, clinical recommendations and the principles of evidence-based medicine;

• educational events implemented or controlled by non-profit professional societies: seminars, master classes, practitioner schools, webinars, etc.

The credit system (ZET) is used to determine the labor intensity in continuing education: 1 ZET is equal to 1 academic hour . The results of the development of educational elements, taking into account the specified labor intensity in ZET, will be taken into account in your portfolio.

4. If you have questions about working in your personal account, use the virtual tour - the virtual assistant will automatically show you the main functions of the page that you have open at that moment. To open the virtual assistant, click on the question mark in the top menu and select "Virtual Tour". Please note that in the settings you need to enable the option "I want to receive hints". volume of study for a five-year period - not less than 250 academic hours (or 250 ZET) . Optimal study schedule for one year - about 50 academic hours (or 50 ZET) . If necessary, minor deviations in the total labor intensity of annually mastered educational elements are possible.

If I complete more than 50 academic hours (50 ZET) per year, will they be taken into account?

ANSWER:

All the results of your studies are taken into account in the portfolio: 1 academic hour is equal to 1 ZET. If you completed more than 50 academic hours per year, it will be reflected in your portfolio.

Please note that educational elements are counted by the date of completion of training , and the portfolio on the Portal is formed by years within your five-year cycle in the specialty.

Few modules in my specialty. What to do?

ANSWER:

The main educational element for the formation of an educational portfolio is training in cycles for advanced training programs.

Placement of IOM on the Portal is carried out as they are developed. The list of educational elements is gradually replenished. In order to receive notifications about the placement of new IEMs in accordance with your specialty, enable the "Receive notifications by mail" option in the settings.

I am on maternity leave, do I need to take training?

ANSWER:

On the one hand, you have the state-guaranteed right to engage only in childcare , so you can only study if you have the desire and opportunity, on the other hand , parental leave is not an obstacle to mastering interactive educational modules and participation in educational events, especially those conducted using remote technologies .

How to properly prepare documents for periodic accreditation and where to send?

ANSWER:

You can find instructions for preparing documents for periodic accreditation at link

In accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated November 22, 2021 N 1081n "On approval of the Regulations on the accreditation of specialists", in order to undergo periodic accreditation, a specialist must send to the Federal Accreditation Center (FAC):

• application for admission to accreditation;

• portfolio for the last 5 years from the date of receipt of the last specialist certificate or specialist accreditation certificate;

• package of personal documents.

Portfolio should include:

• professional activity report certified by the employer, containing the results of work in accordance with the performed labor function;

• information on the development of advanced training programs, and the total period of mastering such programs must be at least 144 hours or at least 74 hours if there is information about education confirmed on the continuing education portal (at least 70 hours).

Documents are submitted through the personal account of the Federal Register of Medical and Pharmaceutical Workers (FRMR) https://lkmr.egisz.rosminzdrav.ru, in person or by registered mail with notification to the following addresses of the federal accreditation center:

• for persons with higher medical education, and persons with higher pharmaceutical or secondary pharmaceutical education - 125993, Moscow, st. Barrikadnaya, 2/1, building 1;

• for persons with a secondary medical education - 107564, Moscow, st. Losinoostrovskaya, 2,

I am a medical worker with a higher non-medical education, how do I get permission to practice?

ANSWER:

According to paragraph 3 of the Order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated November 22, 2021 N 1081n "On approval of the Regulations on the accreditation of specialists" (enters into force on March 1, 2022), medical workers with higher non-medical education will have to undergo primary specialized accreditation.

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