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

Director qualifications are licensing rules, and in Tennessee they come from the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS), Child Care Services.

TDHS licenses Tennessee child care agencies — centers, group homes, family homes and drop-in centers — under the Licensure Rules for Child Care Agencies (rule chapter 1240-04-01), issued under T.C.A. § 71-3-501 et seq.

Director age, education and experience sit in the staff qualification section at 1240-04-01-.06(6)(a), and annual training at 1240-04-01-.06(6)(c).

The rulebook TDHS posts is marked February, 2026 (Revised), with amendments effective November 20, 2025 and February 8, 2026, so when a requirement here and the current rulebook disagree, the rulebook governs — confirm details with TDHS.

Tennessee's director rules set three qualification routes rather than one degree requirement.

The first is graduation from an accredited 4-year college; a registered nurse with less than a 4-year degree also meets the education piece of that route.

The second replaces the degree with credit hours: 36 hours of coursework, at least 30 of which must be in business management, child or youth development, early childhood education or a closely related field.

The third is the high school route — a diploma or equivalent as recognized by state law — paired with a Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA) certificate for 30 clock hours of Administrator Orientation training.

The licensing floor is what TDHS requires; individual employers can ask for more, so read each job posting.

Experience scales with the education route.

The four-year-degree route pairs the degree, or the RN option, with 1 year of full-time experience with children in a group setting.

The 36-hour coursework route, and the TN Early Childhood Administrator Credential route, each require 2 years of full-time group experience.

The high school route carries the longest floor: 4 years of full-time experience with children in a group setting.

The rule phrases each floor as full-time experience with children in a group setting; our research did not transcribe how TDHS counts part-time or related work toward that phrase, so confirm with the licensing agency.

No separate director credential appears among the three routes the rule lists; the credential options sit inside the routes.

On the second route, a TN Early Childhood Administrator Credential can stand in for the 36 hours of coursework.

On the third route, the TECTA certificate for 30 clock hours of Administrator Orientation training is the education core, and the rule allows an equivalent in its place.

Administration coursework enters through the second route's subject split, which counts business management alongside child or youth development and early childhood education toward the 30 related hours.

TECTA's current course catalogue was not part of our research, so ask TDHS or TECTA directly how a credential or coursework you already hold maps onto a route.

A single-site center director earns at least 24 training hours each year, including 6 in health and safety and 3 in literacy; the rule also lets a director earn credit during the year through 1 academic course in a related field.

A new director also completes New Director Training, 3 hours on TN-ELDS, first aid, CPR and personal safety training during the 120-day provisional period.

Directors must also complete a child care agency orientation session during the pre-licensure period and Licensing Rules training before contact with children.

Every Tennessee child care training record runs through TNPAL, the Tennessee Professional Archive of Learning, the required system of record, and staff must create a TNPAL profile.

One requirement recurs on a cycle of its own: background checks for all child care staff at least every five years, with fingerprinting and out-of-state registry checks.

Tennessee's rulebook treats assistant director as its own staff role, with qualifications below the director's.

A center assistant director must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or equivalent and 2 years of experience, and needs 18 annual training hours including at least 4 in administration, management or supervisory topics.

The rules add a second-adult floor tied to how many children are on site: when more than 12 children are present at a center, a second adult must be physically available on the premises.

That is a supervision requirement rather than an assistant-director qualification.

Our research did not transcribe a separate TDHS rule naming a designee who serves in the director's absence, so ask the licensing agency how designation works.