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

Kentucky licenses child care centers through the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and director qualifications are part of that licensing rule.

The current requirements sit in 922 KAR 2:090, whose Sections 10 and 11 carry the director and staff qualification rules; health and safety rules sit in 922 KAR 2:120 and background checks in 922 KAR 2:280. 922 KAR 2:090 was last amended effective February 13, 2025.

One trap for job seekers and operators reading older pages: 922 KAR 2:110, the former child-care center provider requirements regulation, is inactive and was repealed, so any qualification list that cites it points at a retired chapter — the current rules are the ones in 922 KAR 2:090.

Kentucky's baseline applies before any route counts: a center director must be at least 21 years old and hold a high school diploma or GED.

The full qualification list belongs to Type I directors — Type I is Kentucky's license for a center caring for 4 or more children in a nonresidential setting, or 13 or more in space separate from the licensee's residence.

On the education side of that list, a bachelor's or master's degree in education or child development qualifies on its own, and an associate degree in early childhood education also qualifies by itself.

A degree in an unrelated field qualifies once you add 12 clock hours of child development training.

Experience can carry the whole qualification: 3 years of verifiable, full-time paid experience working directly with children meets the Type I director requirement with no degree or credential attached.

The credential routes lean on experience too — the Director's Credential pairs with 1 year of experience, and so does the CDA.

Directors at a Type II center, the licensee's primary residence caring for 7 to 12 children including related children, work from a lighter list where 1 year of full-time paid experience is one of the qualifying items.

Kentucky has its own Director's Credential, defined in 922 KAR 2:230: 12 college credit hours from a cabinet-approved program.

The coursework covers regulations, ethics, family programming, supervision, health and safety, financial management and marketing, and community collaboration.

On the Type I list the credential is one route when paired with 1 year of experience, and the CDA — awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition — is another, also paired with 1 year.

Type II directors can use any Type I route or build a lighter qualification from two of these three items: 12 hours of orientation or child development training, 1 year of full-time paid experience, and 6 additional hours of training in child day care program administration.

The federal CCDF rule (45 CFR 98.44) requires states to set minimum annual training hours for caregivers, teachers and directors and leaves the number to each state.

Kentucky sets its numbers at the staff level in 922 KAR 2:090: staff with supervisory authority complete 6 hours of cabinet-approved orientation within the first three months of employment, and center staff complete 9 hours of approved training in the first year — including 1.5 hours on pediatric abusive head trauma — then 15 hours every following July 1-June 30 year.

Staff training is verified through the cabinet's training database under 922 KAR 2:240, and a staff person may not log more than 15 hours of training in any 24-hour period.

Under 2026 HB 6, which became law on April 14, 2026, at least 3 of a licensed child-care provider's annual training hours must focus on working with children with special needs, though the cabinet's implementing regulations may lag the statute.

Our research read these totals from the staff training rule rather than a director-specific section, so confirm the hours that apply to a director with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Kentucky's rule names the backup directly: the director must designate an adult to be in charge of the center when the director is absent.

The rule also expects the director's attention to stay on the center — a director may not hold another job during center hours.

A separate qualification track titled assistant director is not something our research surfaced in the rule sections read, so a center hiring or promoting a second-in-command should confirm with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services which staff qualifications apply to that role.