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

Director qualifications are licensing rules, and in Mississippi they come from the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), Child Care Facilities Licensure branch.

The center rules are the Regulations Governing Licensure of Child Care Facilities in Title 15, Part 11, Subpart 55, Chapter 1 of the Mississippi Administrative Code, adopted under Mississippi Code §43-20-1 et seq.; the director qualification is Rule 1.5.3.

MSDH is not the only agency a Mississippi director touches: the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) runs the state's Director's Credential.

Directors are also covered by the facility-wide staff rules — the comprehensive fingerprint-based background check applies to operators, employees and prospective employees, and repeats every five years.

Rule 1.5.3 sets two parts: a director must be at least 21 and hold one of four qualifications.

The degree routes are a bachelor's in early childhood education, child development, elementary or special education, child psychology or a related field, or an associate degree in child development technology with 480 hours of supervised lab practicum.

The rule's third route pairs an associate degree in child development technology or child care with 2 years of paid experience, in place of the lab practicum.

The credit route is 24 ECE semester hours on top of 2 years of paid caregiver experience.

Mississippi's community colleges teach the Early Childhood Development Technology associate degree the rule names, so the associate routes can be completed at a Mississippi community college.

Experience stands in for a degree on the rule's fourth route. 2 years of paid caregiver experience, paired with a current CDA credential, the MDHS Director's Credential or 24 ECE semester hours, qualifies a candidate to direct a Mississippi child care center, and the rule's own wording counts paid experience as a caregiver in a licensed child care facility.

The associate degree route takes 2 years of paid experience in place of the 480-hour supervised lab practicum.

The bachelor's route in the rule carries no experience line in our research — the degree stands on its own.

No credential is required on every route — the degree routes in Rule 1.5.3 qualify without one.

The MDHS Director's Credential enters on the experience route, as one of the three items that pair with 2 years of paid caregiver experience alongside a CDA or 24 ECE semester hours.

MDHS offers the credential as a 9-module course, and credentialed directors must renew it every 4 years, with renewal sessions offered each spring and fall.

The credentialing pages our research read do not state the course cost, so ask MDHS for current fees.

The director training the rule does require is course-based — Child Care Regulations, Director Orientation and Playground Safety, covered under training below.

Directors complete 15 contact hours of approved staff development each licensure year, and no more than 5 of those hours may be in-house training the facility provides — the same 15-hour rule that covers all staff, director designees and caregivers.

New directors add three mandatory courses: before a new license is issued, owners, directors and director designees must complete training covering Child Care Regulations, Director Orientation and Playground Safety, and a director appointed later must finish within 6 months.

Renewals run on separate clocks: the Director's Credential renews every 4 years, and the comprehensive background check repeats every five years.

The facility must also keep at least one staff member with valid infant, child and adult first aid and CPR present during all operating hours, including arrival and departure, with certifications from in-person, hands-on training — online-only courses are not accepted.

Mississippi's rule names the designee outright.

A director designee needs a high school diploma or GED and 2 years of paid experience, and may hold sole director authority in a facility for no more than 24 total hours per calendar week, with a once-a-year exception of up to 14 consecutive days.

Designees sit inside the same staff rules as directors: the 15-hour annual staff-development requirement names director designees explicitly, and they are among the people who must complete the mandatory Child Care Regulations, Director Orientation and Playground Safety courses before a new license is issued.