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

Director qualifications are licensing rules, and in Vermont they come from the Department for Children and Families (DCF), Child Development Division (CDD).

Centers — the regulations call them Center Based Child Care and Preschool Programs (CBCCPP) — operate under the Licensing Regulations for Center Based Child Care and Preschool Programs, effective April 17, 2022.

The director qualification tiers sit in section 7.3.1 of those regulations and scale with the number of children a program is licensed to serve, so the first thing to know about any Vermont director job is the size of the license behind it.

The education bar follows the size of the license.

A program licensed for up to 12 children needs a director qualified as a teacher associate: at least 20 years old, a high school diploma or GED, and one of the rule's routes — Career Ladder Level 3; an associate degree in early childhood education or a related field plus 12 months of experience; a Registered Child Care Apprenticeship certificate; a CCV Child Care Certificate plus 12 months; or 21 early childhood or school-age credits plus 12 months.

At 13 to 59 children, that base pairs with a Vermont Program Director Step One Certificate or 3 college credits each in program management/supervision and in curriculum.

At 60 or more children, the director must be qualified as a teacher: Vermont Early Childhood Career Ladder Level 4A or 4B; a bachelor's in early childhood education, child or human development, elementary or early-childhood special education, or child and family services plus 12 months of experience; any bachelor's with 30 ECE or school-age credits plus 12 months; or a Vermont educator license with an early childhood or elementary endorsement.

Experience is wired into the qualification levels rather than set as one standalone director figure.

On the teacher associate routes, 12 months of experience pairs with the associate degree, the CCV Child Care Certificate and the 21-credit option, while Career Ladder Level 3 and the Registered Child Care Apprenticeship certificate are listed without an experience figure.

The one explicit director-level requirement sits at the top tier: a director of a center licensed for 60 or more children needs 24 additional months of experience with children in grade 3 or younger, on top of being qualified as a teacher.

For the 13-to-59 tier, the rule names no separate director experience figure beyond the teacher associate qualification itself.

Yes, above the smallest tier.

A program licensed for 13 to 59 children needs a director who holds the Vermont Program Director Step One Certificate, or 3 college credits each in program management/supervision and in curriculum instead.

At 60 or more children, the credential is a Vermont Program Director Step Two Certificate or Step Three Credential, with a credit alternative of 3 curriculum credits plus 9 credits in management, supervision and administration.

Vermont centers licensed for 13 or more children carry one more coursework rule: within one year of starting, the director completes a 3-credit course in managing an early care and education program that includes budgeting and financial management — or the licensee employs a business manager with at least an associate degree in business.

The annual training clock is the one the regulations set for all center staff, a director included: 15 clock hours of professional development a year, documented in the staff member's Bright Futures Information System (BFIS) Quality and Credential Account and an Individual Professional Development Plan.

CPR and first aid do not count toward the 15 hours, and since October 1, 2024, substitutes need 4 hours a year.

Vermont tracks professional development through BFIS, and training must meet criteria set by Northern Lights at CCV (Community College of Vermont).

Onboarding screening comes before any of that: new center staff submit a Records Check Authorization and are fingerprinted at a Division-designated location before working with children, and no one may be left alone with children until the Division approves the fingerprint-based check.

Beyond that annual requirement, our research transcribed no separate renewal or re-credentialing cycle for Vermont directors; confirm any renewal expectations with the Child Development Division.

Vermont writes the rule around the director's hours rather than a separate assistant-director title: a qualified program director must be on site at least 60% of the center's operating hours, and another staff member is designated in charge when the director is away.

That designated-in-charge staff member is the closest thing to an assistant director in the sections of the regulations our research transcribed, and our research transcribed no separate assistant-director qualification tier for Vermont centers.

What qualifies the designated staff member is not set in the material we reviewed, so a center planning its leadership coverage can confirm the expectation with the Child Development Division.

The regulations our research transcribed set no multi-site director rule for Vermont.

What they do set is per-site licensing: a full center license is effective for three years, a separate application is required for each site, and licenses are not transferable.

A director weighing a multi-location role should therefore expect each site to hold its own license and can raise any multi-site management expectations directly with the Child Development Division.

The CBCCPP rules were amended by a CDD memo effective October 1, 2024, to meet federal CCDF requirements.

A fuller rewrite of the rules was in draft as of late 2025, and CDD's proposed-rules page listed no final proposed rules when checked.

Because the director qualification tiers sit inside these regulations, confirm the current text with the Child Development Division before relying on any single figure.