Mostly, yes.
The CDA's 120 hours of training can be completed with an online provider, the professional portfolio is uploaded with the application — Home Visitor candidates excepted, whose portfolio is still reviewed onsite — and the Council for Professional Recognition takes initial applications through its YourCouncil system.
What stays in person: the CDA exam, which English- and Spanish-language candidates take at a Pearson VUE test center, and the verification visit — which, since February 2, 2026, English- and Spanish-language candidates complete only if they don't score at a qualifying level on the exam; candidates testing in another language still complete one.
What parts of the CDA can be done online?
The Council for Professional Recognition describes earning the CDA as a three-step process — Prepare, Apply, Demonstrate — and the online-versus-in-person split follows those steps.
| Step | What it involves | Online or in person? |
|---|---|---|
| Prepare | 120 hours of formal early childhood education training, with no fewer than 10 hours in each of eight subject areas, plus a Professional Portfolio prepared within the 6 months before you apply | Training is studied wherever your provider delivers it; the portfolio is built by you and, since February 2, 2026, uploaded with the application — Home Visitor candidates are the exception, with their portfolio reviewed onsite |
| Apply | The initial assessment application and the $525 fee, paid at application | Fully online, through the Council's YourCouncil system; the payment date starts a 6-month window to finish the credentialing process |
| Demonstrate | The CDA exam, and a verification visit for candidates who don't show a qualifying level of competence on it | The English and Spanish exams are in person at Pearson VUE test centers (candidates approved to test in another language take theirs by remote proctoring); the visit, when required, is observed where you work or volunteer |
One Prepare-stage item can never happen at a desk: the 480 hours of professional work experience in your credential's setting and age group, which must fall within the 3 years before you apply.
Those hours are earned on the job.
The award itself comes back to you digitally: the Council delivers earned CDAs as a digital certificate and badge through Credly, with a printed certificate available for $30.
Why the credential is worth this process: BLS writes that some states and employers require childcare workers to hold a nationally recognized credential — most often the CDA, which must be renewed every 3 years.
For the full picture — settings, eligibility and every step — start with our guide to the CDA credential.
The online 120-hour training requirement
The biggest block of CDA work you can do from a laptop is the formal training.
The Council's requirement is 120 hours of formal early childhood education training, with no fewer than 10 hours in each of eight subject areas — and there is no countdown on them: the hours can be completed any time before you apply, with no five-year limit on the Council's published pages.
Notice what that requirement is written in: hours, subject areas and the type of provider.
The training must come from an organization with early childhood teacher-preparation expertise, and the Council provides no training itself and does not endorse any program — coursework from an individual consultant or a conference does not count, however it is delivered.
One verifiable example of the format: ChildCare Education Institute's Online College Credit Eligible CDA Certificate is a 155-hour online program, and NCCRS recommends 10 lower-division semester hours of credit in human/child development or early childhood education for it.
How providers compare on format, cost and pace is a shopping question rather than a credential rule, so we keep that comparison in its own guide to CDA prep courses.
What still happens in person
Two parts of the Demonstrate step are anchored to physical places — the exam and the verification visit — plus one documentation question worth settling before you apply.
The exam. English and Spanish CDA exams are taken at Pearson VUE test centers, and you schedule through Pearson VUE — not through the Council.
There is no at-home option for the English or Spanish exam.
Remote proctoring exists only for candidates approved to test in a language other than English or Spanish: they take a computer-based exam in that language via remote proctoring, and must still complete both the exam and the verification visit.
Testing in another language — American Sign Language counts — also requires Council approval before you submit your application.
The verification visit. Since February 2, 2026, the Council no longer requires a visit for candidates who demonstrate a qualifying level of competence on the exam; candidates who don't reach that level still complete one.
The visit is an in-person event: the observation must take place at the center or home where you work or volunteer with children, though the review and reflection parts can happen in a quiet place outside the classroom.
The Council's current pages describe the visit as an onsite observation — we did not find a virtual-visit option on them.
First aid and CPR documentation. This one we can't confirm from the Council's public pages, because the Council's own materials conflict: its PD Specialist FAQ lists current first aid and CPR certification among portfolio items, while the main candidate FAQ and the setting pages do not list CPR as an initial eligibility item.
Treat the Competency Standards book for your setting as the authority and check it for any first aid or CPR documentation it requires.
The process changed on February 2, 2026
Free online options
Set expectations first: there is no official free online CDA course, because the awarding body offers no training at all.
The Council for Professional Recognition does not provide training and does not endorse any program — so any "free CDA course" you find belongs to some other organization, and its hours count only if they meet the Council's training rules.
The documented route to a no-cost credential runs through funding rather than a free course — and it is conditional: the Council says income-eligible candidates may have their state pay for all or part of CDA training and possibly the assessment fee, and it lists funding organizations by state on its CDA Scholarships page.
The $525 initial assessment fee is paid to the Council at application — and covering that fee, not just the coursework, is what state funding may add.
Before you count any free course toward your 120 hours, check two things.
First the source: an organization with early childhood teacher-preparation expertise qualifies — an individual consultant's free webinar or a conference session does not.
Second, the fine print on acceptance: any provider slogan about being accepted nationwide is the vendor's own marketing claim, and which courses count toward your state's own training requirements is decided by each state's licensing agency or workforce registry.
Ask your state's before relying on a course for anything beyond the CDA's own hours.
For a roundup of free CDA training programs, see our guide.
Choosing an online CDA course
Because the Council endorses nothing, "online CDA program" is a marketing phrase, not a Council designation — no provider carries the Council's seal of approval, so a provider's own claims are not the test.
The Council's requirements are what decide whether a course works:
- 120 hours of formal early childhood education training, with no fewer than 10 hours in each of the eight subject areas
- A provider that is an organization with early childhood teacher-preparation expertise — not an individual consultant or a conference
- Documentation you can produce: the Council accepts transcripts from all U.S. state and territory workforce registries, so registry-recorded training is one paper trail it recognizes
- A straight answer on your state's own training rules, which each state's licensing agency or workforce registry decides — that acceptance is not the provider's to promise
- The full budget: the $525 assessment fee is paid to the Council at application, separate from any course price
Once the course is chosen, the split above is the whole map: train and build the portfolio wherever you are, apply through YourCouncil, and sit the English or Spanish exam at a Pearson VUE test center, completing a visit only if your exam score doesn't reach a qualifying level (other-language candidates test by remote proctoring and still complete a visit).
When you're ready to use the credential, browse childcare teacher jobs to see how centers phrase the requirement in live postings.
This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. The CDA process is set by the Council for Professional Recognition, and state training requirements by each state's child care licensing agency; confirm current details with the Council and your state agency before you apply, buy or hire.