Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Certification Policy Manual
A two or more credit university or technical college course in early childhood / child development can be completed (in place of the Introduction to the Child Care Profession). A two or more credit course cannot be completed in lieu of the Principles of Child Care Certification. The Fundamentals of Family Child Care* course, plus CPR training and a training in child abuse and neglect (CAN), will still need to be completed in order to meet the entry-level pre-service training requirements for Regular (Level 1) certification.
The following tools may be useful when determining if a for-credit course is acceptable for meeting training requirements:
Entry Level Training Alternatives lists general courses that are acceptable for meeting training requirements for the Introduction to the Child Care Profession.
Wisconsin Core Competencies (starting on page 5) provides a brief overview of each core competency, and a description of what the core competency includes.
If you are uncertain whether a course meets requirements, you may email the Wisconsin Registry (support@wiregistry.org) as they have staff dedicated to determining whether a course meets entry level training requirements.
The credit courses, as described in the link above, do not meet the AHT/SIDS, SBS or CAN requirements, nor do they meet the requirement for the Fundamentals of Family Child Care. If the applicant has completed a broad-based credit course (2 or more credits), the certification worker must ensure the applicant / operator also completes the Fundamentals of Family Child Care* course, CPR training, CAN training, and that the operator also meets the SIDS and AHT/SBS requirements to care for children under age one (1) and five (5), respectively.
*Certification rules pertaining to entry-level training were amended in 2008 to require “department-approved” training. At that time, Operations Memo 08-28 was published and instructed certification agencies to accept a broad-based university or technical college course (2 or more credits) in an area that applies to early childhood / child development as meeting entry-level training requirements. With this revised training policy module (June 2013), department-approved training now includes / requires the Fundamentals of Family Child Care course along with the broad-based 2 credit course. Operators who were granted Regular certification with only a 2+ credit course prior to the publication of this module (June 2013) are considered grandfathered in.
This page last updated 08/2024.