A CDA costs $525 to apply for.
That is the initial assessment fee the Council for Professional Recognition charges for the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, paid online when you apply, and it is non-refundable.
Training, the required Competency Standards book and a $250 renewal every three years add to the bill — but the bill is not always yours alone: if you are income eligible, your state may pay all or part of your training and possibly the assessment fee, and employers and the funders the Council lists can pick up part of the cost.
What the CDA assessment fee is
The headline number is the Council for Professional Recognition's initial assessment fee for the CDA credential: $525, paid online at application through the Council's YourCouncil system.
The Council's own FAQ puts it plainly: "To apply for your initial CDA Credential, the cost is $525." The fee is non-refundable and non-transferable, so it is due whether or not you go on to finish the process.
Paying starts a clock: candidates have a 6-month window to complete the credentialing process, and it opens on the date the application payment is submitted — not when you schedule the exam or hear back about anything else.
Two more charges can follow.
If you fail the CDA exam, you can retake it for $125 per attempt, up to two additional times; after three unsuccessful attempts, you may reapply once a six-month waiting period has passed.
And the awarded credential arrives as a digital certificate and badge through Credly — a printed certificate is available for $30 if you want one on paper.
Confirm the fee before you pay it
Training and book costs
The $525 does not buy your training.
Before you can apply at all, the Council requires 120 hours of formal early childhood education training, with no fewer than 10 hours in each of eight subject areas — completed any time before you submit.
The Council does not provide that training and does not endorse any training program: it has to come from an organization with early childhood teacher-preparation expertise, and training from individual consultants or conferences is not accepted.
The Council neither provides nor endorses training, so there is no single answer to what those 120 hours cost — the price is whatever your training provider charges.
Compare providers on cost as well as format, and confirm any course you are considering counts toward the Council's 120-hour requirement before you pay for it.
Two books enter the budget.
Every initial CDA candidate must purchase the CDA Competency Standards book for their setting — that one is required.
The Essentials for Working with Young Children textbook and workbook bundle is the Council's own study resource, but it is a study aid, not a stated requirement.
What either costs, we cannot tell you: the Council's store pages were not accessible when we researched this page, so book prices are unverified — check the Council's store for current prices.
Total typical cost: what's fixed and what varies
The Council's own fees are fixed and published.
Paid to the Council, the credential costs $525 to earn and $250 to renew every three years, with extras that only apply in specific situations (amounts as published on the Council's pages in October 2026):
| Fee item | Amount | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Initial assessment application | $525 | Paid online when you apply; non-refundable |
| Exam retake | $125 | Each attempt after a failed exam, up to two |
| Printed certificate | $30 | Optional — the digital certificate and badge are standard |
| Renewal | $250 | Every 3 years, starting three years after the award date |
Everything except the Council's own fees is priced by someone else.
The 120 training hours are bought from training providers at whatever they charge — the Council neither provides nor endorses training — and book prices were not verifiable when we researched.
Our research found no verified national figure for what candidates spend on training and materials in total.
So the honest total: $525 in Council fees at minimum for the initial credential and $250 every three years after, plus your training provider's price and books — and possibly far less out of pocket, if funding like the kind in the next two sections covers part of it.
Will your employer pay?
Some do, and it is worth asking before you spend your own money — but our research found no national figure for how many centers reimburse CDA costs.
The honest answer is that employer payment is real, not guaranteed, and decided employer by employer.
One route runs through scholarships: T.E.A.C.H.
Early Childhood scholarships, in states that run them, use a cost-shared model in which the sponsoring employer is part of the arrangement.
Individual benefits exist too — The Goddard School, for example, lists tuition reimbursement among the example benefits it publishes for its schools, though each Goddard School is owned and operated by a franchisee who sets its own compensation and benefits, so the list is not a guarantee.
Outside a scholarship, whether your center pays is a conversation with your director — and a normal one to have.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that some states and employers require childcare workers to hold a nationally recognized credential, most often the CDA.
When a credential is required for the job, asking who covers its cost before you enroll is reasonable.
If you are already employed, ask whether the center covers training, the application fee or books, and get any commitment in writing.
If you are job hunting, it is a fair question at the interview or offer stage — and browsing childcare teacher jobs shows which centers near you ask for the CDA in the first place.
Head Start is its own case.
The Office of Head Start's staff standards make a CDA or comparable credential the minimum for some roles: Early Head Start center-based teachers need at least a CDA or comparable credential with training focused on infant and toddler development (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(1)), and Head Start preschool assistant teachers need a CDA or state certificate meeting or exceeding it — or to be enrolled in a degree program, or in a CDA program to be completed within two years of hire (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(3)).
Our research did not quantify how often Head Start programs fund the credential; if you teach in one, your program's director or education manager is the person to ask about training support.
State CDA scholarships and free programs
The Council's own answer to "who pays?" leans on the states.
Its candidate FAQ says: "if you are income eligible, the state may pay for all or part of your training.
The state may also cover the assessment fee." The Council keeps a CDA Scholarships page listing funding organizations state by state, and that directory is the place to start.
Free training is real, too.
The federal iCDA Course Preparation Series costs nothing and provides eight courses with 10 hours in each of the eight CDA subject areas — 80 of the 120 training hours the CDA requires — with candidates adding other courses on the same free federal platform, Early Education Pathways (EEP), to reach the full 120.
Which other programs are free, and where, is its own topic: our free CDA training guide walks through them.
Another funding name you may meet is T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood, a scholarship program with its own model: T.E.A.C.H. scholarships pay most of tuition, books and travel, often require paid release time from the sponsoring employer, award a bonus or raise when credit hours are completed, and require the recipient to stay with their program for a set period.
Eligibility, coverage and applications — including whether the CDA is covered — are set by the T.E.A.C.H. program in your state, if your state runs one.
Put together, this is as close to free as the CDA gets: free training series can cover much of the 120 hours, and if your state offers it and you qualify, a state program willing to pay for training and the assessment fee can bring those two items to zero — though the required Competency Standards book and any hours the state does not cover may still cost you something.
Funding is set program by program
Renewal cost
A CDA is valid for 3 years from the award date, and renewal costs $250.
Renewal stays in the setting of the original credential, and applications can be submitted up to 6 months before expiration but must be received by the expiration date — the full requirements checklist is on our CDA renewal page.
The $250 is not the whole renewal budget.
Renewal requires 4.5 CEUs, or a 3-credit college course, or 45 clock hours of early childhood education training completed after your current credential's issue date — bought from the college or training provider that offers it — plus current membership in an early childhood professional organization, another renewal item to budget for.
Choose that membership carefully: a state registry membership, a PTA or teachers' union membership, or a magazine subscription does not satisfy the requirement.
Renewal also requires at least 80 hours working with young children in the past year and a recommendation from an ECE Reviewer.
One cost you can skip: first aid and CPR certification is not required for renewal.
The deadline is hard.
Once a CDA expires, the holder must reapply for a new credential — there are no exceptions or extensions outside the amnesty program.
That is why the current amnesty matters for cost: the CDA Renewal Amnesty Program runs from July 6, 2026 to April 26, 2027 (11:59 PM EST) and lets anyone whose CDA expired as far back as January 1, 2016 renew by meeting all current renewal requirements and paying the $250 renewal fee online — the renewal price rather than a new initial application.
Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Fees are set by the Council for Professional Recognition, and funding rules by each state program. Confirm current fees with the Council and funding eligibility with the funder for your state — or your state child care licensing agency.