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

Director qualifications are licensing rules, and in Indiana they come from FSSA's Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL).

OECOSL licenses Indiana child care centers and homes under IC 12-17.2, and the center rules are 470 IAC 3-4.7.

Director qualifications sit inside that center rulebook: 470 IAC 3-4.7-21 sets the director's minimum age, education and experience, and 470 IAC 3-4.7-35 sets annual in-service training.

The rule text on this page was read in FSSA's own center interpretive guide, because the state's official administrative rules viewer is JavaScript-only; when a requirement here and the current rulebook disagree, the rulebook governs, so confirm details with OECOSL.

Indiana's center rules list three ways to qualify as a director, all in 470 IAC 3-4.7-21.

One is a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or in elementary education with a kindergarten endorsement.

Another is a bachelor's degree in any field, plus either 15 early-childhood credit hours or a CDA.

The third is an associate degree in early childhood education, which pairs with an experience requirement covered below.

The 15-credit option is the route for a director whose degree is outside the field: the credit hours have to be early-childhood content, or a CDA covers that piece instead.

Experience enters Indiana's director rules through the third route.

An associate degree in early childhood education qualifies a director together with 3 years of experience in an early childhood program.

The two bachelor's routes carry no experience minimum in the rule text FSSA publishes — there, the requirement is the degree alone, or the degree plus 15 early-childhood credit hours or a CDA.

Our research did not transcribe a definition of what counts as an early childhood program toward those 3 years, so confirm with OECOSL how the experience is counted.

Indiana's director routes run through degrees, early-childhood credit hours and the CDA rather than a state-issued director credential, in the rule text our research read.

The CDA is the Child Development Associate credential awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition.

Where the director rules call for a CDA, OECOSL treats three alternatives as equivalent: the Certified Childcare Professional (CCP), the Preschool Associates Credential (PAC), and a Division-approved Administrators Certificate.

That substitution matters on the route that pairs a bachelor's degree in any field with 15 early-childhood credit hours or a CDA.

Separate administration coursework does not appear in the routes our research transcribed — the combinations are degree-plus-credits rather than credits in management.

Indiana center directors need at least 12 clock hours of in-service training every year, the same annual floor the rules set for everyone counted in ratio (470 IAC 3-4.7-35).

Those hours are on top of first aid, CPR and universal precautions training.

The rule also directs what the year covers: a director's in-service hours must cover administrative issues, curriculum and developmentally appropriate practice, and health, nutrition, sanitation and safety.

Our research did not transcribe a renewal cycle for the director qualification itself, so ask OECOSL what renewal currently requires.

One requirement does recur on a fixed cycle: Indiana's child care background check pairs a fingerprint-based criminal history check with the Indiana Child Protection Index, and the fingerprints are redone every 3 years, or after 180 or more days out of Indiana child care.

Our research transcribed the standards Indiana sets for the director — at least 21, with one of the three education-and-experience routes — but did not confirm separate Indiana rules naming an assistant director or a designee who serves in the director's absence. 470 IAC 3-4.7 may address designation, so confirm with OECOSL rather than assuming the director standard transfers to another title.

What the center rules do set for other staff: caregivers counted in ratio must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or equivalency, and the 12 clock hours of annual in-service training apply to directors and everyone counted in ratio alike.

Indiana also lets a student at least 15 years old who is exploring an early childhood career count in a center's ratio as a volunteer while supervised at all times by an authorized adult.

Two 2025 Indiana laws changed staff requirements that reach center directors.

Since July 1, 2025, all Indiana child care staff and volunteers — at centers, homes, ministries and exempt providers — must be trained in pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid within 90 days of starting, with at least one certified person present at all times, and all infant and toddler staff in centers must hold pediatric CPR certification.

Separately, a 2025 law (SEA 486) removed the statutory TB testing requirement: the administrative rules still list a Mantoux test for center and home staff, and OECOSL is accepting one site-wide variance to omit TB testing until the rules are updated.