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

Director qualifications are licensing rules, and in North Dakota they come from the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services, which licenses early childhood programs through its Early Childhood Services unit.

Centers are licensed under North Dakota Century Code chapter 50-11.1 and Administrative Code chapter 75-03-10, and the director qualification list sits in section 75-03-10-10.

Family child care homes and group child care programs are licensed under separate chapters of the administrative code, so this page is about center directors.

Rules change, so confirm the current director requirements with Early Childhood Services before you apply for a director role.

North Dakota qualifies a center director through a list of education-and-experience routes rather than a single required degree.

A bachelor's degree in early childhood education or child development qualifies by itself.

A bachelor's degree in another field needs 6 months of experience plus one of three additions: 8 semester hours of early childhood education coursework, 120 training hours, or a director's credential.

An associate degree in early childhood education qualifies with 6 months of experience, while an associate degree in another field needs 1 year of experience plus coursework.

An elementary teaching certificate qualifies with 6 months of experience.

Where a route says coursework, the rule text our research transcribed does not name the courses, so confirm what counts with Early Childhood Services.

Experience is the variable that moves with education.

The early childhood bachelor's route stands alone with no experience attached.

Six months of experience pairs with a bachelor's outside the field, an early childhood associate degree or an elementary teaching certificate — the outside-field bachelor's route still needs one of the three additions from the education section — and 1 year pairs with an associate degree in another field, the CDA or Montessori certification, with coursework also listed on the outside-field associate and Montessori routes.

The state's supervisor role — the rule's lead-teacher-level role — carries its own list: an early childhood associate degree, a CDA or approved diploma, Montessori certification, or a high school diploma plus 1 year of child care experience, alongside the basic course within 90 days and 13 training hours a year.

The rule text our research transcribed sets these minimums but does not say how qualifying experience is counted, so confirm documentation questions with Early Childhood Services.

A director's credential is not required on every route.

What the rule calls a director's credential is one of the three additions that can complete the bachelor's route outside the field, alongside 8 semester hours of early childhood coursework or 120 training hours.

Two credentials also anchor routes of their own: the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition, qualifies with 1 year of experience, and Montessori certification qualifies with 1 year of experience plus coursework.

Our research did not confirm a North Dakota-issued director credential, so ask Early Childhood Services which credentials it accepts before you enroll in one.

Directors must complete at least 13 hours of department-approved training each year, including 1 hour of safe sleep training before caring for infants and 1 hour of mandated reporter training.

The director rules also require a basic child care course within 90 days of employment.

The 13 hours are an annual requirement, so they come due again every year in the role.

For new programs, the department makes its online Childcare Provider Orientation course the first step for new owners, operators, directors and supervisors.

Separately, North Dakota's fingerprint-based criminal history checks cover license applicants and center staff, and a check is valid five years unless the person leaves early childhood employment for more than 180 days.

The center rules our research transcribed set qualifications for the director and for the supervisor role, and they do not surface a separate assistant-director credential or a designated-director pathway.

The fingerprint-check rule does name emergency designees among the people a program must check, and the supervisor role — the rule's lead-teacher-level role — carries its own qualification list under the center rules.

If a posting says assistant director, or a center needs coverage for the director's absence, treat the title as the center's own and confirm current expectations with Early Childhood Services.

North Dakota runs the Early Childhood Workforce Registry, formerly known as Growing Futures, and state materials describe it as free and optional for early childhood professionals.

Membership places a person on a Career Pathway with categories B through J.

The state also pays Career Pathway Advancement incentives when a member moves up a category: $625 at Category B, $1,000 at C or D, $1,500 at E through G and $2,000 at H, through quarterly application windows, and the incentives are taxable income.

The director rules our research transcribed do not list registry membership among the director requirements, so confirm with Early Childhood Services if a posting mentions it.