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

Director qualifications are licensing rules, and in Wyoming they come from the Department of Family Services (DFS) Child Care Licensing.

Wyoming child care facilities are licensed under the Child Care Licensing rules of agency 049, chapters 1-10; the center rules were adopted 10/7/2016 and amended 2/2/2022.

The director standards sit in Chapter 7 for child care centers and Chapter 6 for family child care centers, and the training rules that also bind directors sit in Chapter 4.

For a child care center director, the floor is a high school diploma or its equivalent.

On top of it, the director needs a combination of education and experience equivalent to two years in the areas of early childhood management or early childhood education, child development, nursing or another related field.

The rule counts education and experience together toward that equivalency, so the two years do not have to be years of work alone.

Family child care center directors follow Chapter 6: at least 21 with a high school diploma, plus one year of equivalent education and experience, or six clock hours of child care training beyond pre-service, or a recognized credential.

The pages we read do not set out how DFS converts specific credits, degrees or credentials into the equivalency, so confirm your mix of coursework and experience with Child Care Licensing.

Two years is the child care center benchmark, and the qualifying fields are broad: early childhood management, early childhood education, child development, nursing and other related fields.

Because education counts toward the same equivalency, the two years do not have to be years of work alone.

Family child care center directors meet a lighter bar — one year of equivalent education and experience, with the rule's shorter routes (six clock hours of training beyond pre-service, or a recognized credential) accepted in its place.

The role itself carries a presence rule: a director must be on site and available for at least 50% of the operating week in which they are listed as the director.

The rule text we read names no required director credential and no list of administrator courses.

Its credential route works the other way around: a candidate who holds a professional credential the Department of Family Services recognizes can use it in place of the two-year education-and-experience equivalency.

Which credentials DFS recognizes is the open question — the rule text we read does not name any, and our research did not confirm a list.

A director candidate holding a national credential should therefore ask DFS Child Care Licensing whether it counts before relying on it.

Wyoming counts ongoing training in credits, and the cycle is 32 training credits every two years — a rule that binds directors regardless of how many hours they work.

The 32 credits split into 8 core credits (infectious disease, fire safety, sanitation, mandatory reporting, emergency preparedness, transportation, and the safe sleep and shaken baby topics if the facility serves infants) and 24 elective credits in early learning and child development.

No more than 50% of the credits may come from videos, books or pre-recorded materials unless other options are unavailable.

Owners and directors must also complete pre-service training before the license is issued.

Our research did not surface a separate Wyoming director certificate with its own renewal cycle, so ask Child Care Licensing what a director's status currently requires.

The presence rule comes with a designee structure: a child care center director must be on site and available for at least 50% of the operating week, and an assistant director must be on duty whenever the director is absent.

The center assistant director role carries its own bar — at least 21, a high school diploma or equivalent, and one year of equivalent education and experience.

If the director position empties, the assistant director becomes the responsible person while the facility hires a new director within three months and notifies Child Care Licensing immediately.

Family child care centers set a lighter assistant bar: at least 18 with a high school diploma and either six months of full-time experience in licensed or legally exempt child care or 15 hours of approved training, including orientation.

Yes — Wyoming STARS, the Statewide Training and Resource System, is the state's early childhood registry, funded by DFS and administered by Align.

It approves the training and trainers licensed providers use and records completed training credits, so it is where the two-year credit cycle's completed coursework is tracked.

One timing note: as of October 2026, the registry was migrating to a new learning management system and was temporarily not processing course requests or credits.