The Council for Professional Recognition & CCEI Expand Partnership


ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI), an accredited, distance training institution dedicated exclusively to the child care industry, is proud to announce an expanded partnership with the Council for Professional Recognition, the administrator of the Child Development Associate® (CDA) National Credentialing Program™.

The Council has always recognized the quality of CCEI programs and accepted them toward meeting the coursework requirements of the CDA credentialing program, but the partnership now expands to include a CCEI program that meets more than just the coursework requirements of the Council. Graduates of CCEI’s Online Early Childhood Credential (ECC) will have met all training, portfolio, and observation requirements of the national CDA Credential and only need to complete the Council’s exam at a PearsonVue testing center to finalize the CDA Credential application process. The ECC is an expanded program that incorporates the other CDA required elements such as the formal observation and portfolio creation.

CCEI’s 180-hour ECC program is for professionals working with children in the birth to eight-year age range and is designed to provide a basic framework of early childhood education theory and application. The ECC is recommended by the National College Credit Recommendation Service (National CCRS) for 12 semester hours of college credit in Early Childhood Education (ECE). The National CCRS has over 1,500 higher education institutions willing to consider its college credit recommendations.

“This new partnership promotes the transferability of coursework between two industry leaders, something greatly needed in the early childhood industry,” said Maria Taylor, President and CEO of CCEI. “So many practitioners have to unnecessarily repeat coursework and this partnership demonstrates that organizations can work together to promote quality education that benefits the practitioner.”

For more information about the CCEI Online Early Childhood Credential program, contact a CCEI recruitment coordinator at 1.800.499.9907, prompt 3, Monday – Friday, 8 am – 5 pm ET.