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

New York licenses child day care centers through the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).

Under the OCFS rules, a child day care center is a non-residential program caring for more than six children for more than three hours per day per child, and centers operate under 18 NYCRR Subpart 418-1.

The director qualifications in this article come from that subpart's staff requirements, 18 NYCRR 418-1.13.

One carve-out matters for job seekers: New York City group child care centers are permitted by NYC DOHMH under the city Health Code (Article 47) rather than the OCFS center rule, a split our research could not verify from saved agency pages, so confirm director rules for a New York City group child care center directly with NYC DOHMH.

The rule lists four ways to qualify, and education is what separates them.

A bachelor's degree that includes, or comes in addition to, 12 college credits in early childhood, child development or a related field meets the education requirement outright, with no plan of study attached — the experience years in the next section still apply.

An associate's degree in early childhood or a related field meets it too, as does a CDA (child development associate credential) or another credential OCFS recognizes.

Both of those lower routes carry a condition the bachelor's route does not: a plan of study leading to a bachelor's degree or the New York State Children's Program Administrator Credential.

Experience requirements scale with the education route.

The bachelor's route asks for one year of full-time teaching experience and one year of experience supervising staff.

The associate's and CDA routes ask for two years of full-time teaching experience and two years of supervising staff each.

If you are aiming at one of those lower routes, there are two tracks to complete: the plan of study toward the bachelor's degree or the administrator credential, and the two-year experience record.

New York's center rule names one director-specific credential: the New York State Children's Program Administrator Credential.

Hold it, add one year of full-time teaching experience and one year of supervising staff, and you meet the director qualifications on that route alone.

It is one route among four, not a credential the rule demands of every director — the bachelor's, associate's and CDA routes qualify without it.

The CDA itself, or another OCFS-recognized credential, functions as a credential route of its own when paired with a plan of study toward the administrator credential or a bachelor's degree.

Directors follow the same training clock as every other staff person and volunteer in the center.

OCFS-approved training covering the federal minimum health and safety topics is due preservice or within three months of starting, and you may not be left unsupervised with children until it is done.

Every staff person and volunteer must then complete at least 30 hours of training every two years.

Inside that two-year cycle, 15 of the required hours are due during your first six months at the program, and at least five hours of OCFS-approved training are required every year.

New York builds its director-absence rule around a designated staff person: whenever the center is in operation and the director is away from the premises, a staff person must be designated to act on behalf of the director, and that person must be knowledgeable about the program's operations and policies.

Licensed capacity then decides who may carry the director's administrative work.

In centers licensed for 45 or more children, administrative, fiscal management and supervision functions may not be performed by a group teacher or assistant teacher.

In centers licensed for fewer than 45 children, a group teacher or assistant teacher who meets the director qualifications may also perform those functions.

Two rule details round out the picture.

First, a director who plans to open the center starts before any hiring: OCFS issues a center license application to a new applicant only after the applicant completes an OCFS-approved pre-application orientation session.

Second, the rule carries a grandfather clause — people who held New York center positions before the current qualification rules and met the rules then in effect may continue in those positions.

Our research could not verify current center licensing application fees, timelines or the OCFS online application portal, so ask OCFS for those figures.