What Qualifications Do You Need to Be a Daycare Director in Illinois?

The Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) sets the qualifications for day care center directors.

Since July 1, 2026 it has been the lead agency for child care licensing, replacing DCFS Day Care Licensing, and the center rules moved with it: what was Title 89, Illinois Administrative Code 407 under DCFS is now Title 23, Illinois Administrative Code 2008, recodified under Public Act 103-0594.

Director qualifications sit in Section 2008.130 of the center rulebook, and the annual training rule sits in Section 2008.100.

Older references that cite DCFS and Title 89 no longer name the current rulebook, so use the Title 23 numbering when you confirm a requirement.

Every Illinois day care center director must be at least 21 years old and hold a high school diploma or GED.

Illinois ties its degree requirement to the hire date: directors hired on or after July 1, 2017 need a minimum of an associate degree from an accredited college or university in child development or early childhood education, or the equivalent — 64 semester hours with 21 of them in child development or early childhood education.

Montessori credentials that are MACTE-accredited, AMS or AMI, for any ages between birth and 12 years, may substitute for the child development coursework required of Illinois directors and teachers.

Directors hired before July 1, 2017 sit outside that degree requirement as our research records it, and IDEC can confirm how the rule reads for a specific hire date.

The Illinois director requirements our research recorded are built on age, education and an administration qualification, and none of them sets a standalone experience figure.

We did not find a required number of years or hours of teaching or administrative experience in the director sections of 23 IAC 2008 that the research transcribed.

That is a gap in our reading rather than a finding that Illinois requires no experience, so ask IDEC how the current rule treats experience before you plan a route into the director role.

Directors hired on or after July 1, 2017 meet an administration requirement on top of the education requirement, and the rule gives three ways to do it: a Gateways Level I Illinois Director Credential, 3 semester hours in child care administration, or 3 points of approved administration training.

Gateways Credentials are awarded and recognized by IDEC and administered by INCCRRA.

Our research records that the rule accepts the Level I credential; it does not transcribe the credential's own coursework or portfolio requirements, so check INCCRRA's Gateways pages for what the credential currently involves.

The rule sets one annual figure for the whole program: the director and each child care staff member shall participate in 15 clock hours of in-service training per year.

First-year training must cover recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect and the licensing rules.

On renewal, our research recorded the annual hours but not a separate renewal cycle for the Gateways Director Credential itself; INCCRRA administers the credentials, so its Gateways pages are where to confirm what renewal currently involves.

Our research did not record a separately titled assistant-director qualification in the Illinois center rule; what it does record is a designee requirement: a staff member who meets the qualifications for a day care center director shall be designated to assume decision-making responsibility whenever the child care director is off site.

A center must also report a change of director to the Department — IDEC as of July 1, 2026 — by the next business day.

The size of the license shapes the job itself: centers licensed for more than 50 children must employ a full-time director on site in a non-teaching capacity, with exceptions for the first and last hour of days of 10 or more hours and for days when attendance is under 50.

Centers licensed for 50 or fewer children may use a director who also teaches, as long as that person is qualified for both roles.

Gateways membership is not optional for directors: all Illinois center staff, assistants and the director must be members of the Gateways to Opportunity Registry, and new staff must join within 30 days of hire.

The requirement comes from the Illinois center licensing rule — federal CCDF rules direct states to plan a training and professional development framework that addresses workforce information, but they do not require individual staff to join a registry.

The CDA Council lists Illinois Gateways as an NWRA-approved state registry, and its registry site is registry.ilgateways.com.

Registry membership also surfaces in licensing paperwork: a center license application must include proof that all staff and the director are Gateways Registry members.