Which CDA Should You Get? Preschool, Infant-Toddler, Birth to Five, Family Child Care or Home Visitor

Every CDA is earned in one setting.

As of October 2026, the Council for Professional Recognition — the body that awards the credential — offers five: center-based Infant-Toddler (birth to 36 months), center-based Preschool (ages 3 to 5), center-based Birth to Five, Family Child Care (birth to 5 in a home) and Home Visitor.

The Birth to Five option is the one a "four settings" summary misses: any page still describing four CDA settings is out of date.

For educators whose center hours span the whole birth-to-5 range, it matters — the Birth to Five credential's 480 experience hours must include at least 160 hours in each of three sub-age groups: infants (birth to 17 months), toddlers (18 to 36 months) and preschoolers (3 to 5 years).

The settings share a spine.

The education gate is a high school diploma or GED — or current enrollment as a junior or senior in a high school career and technical program in early childhood education — and candidates complete 120 hours of formal early childhood education training, with no fewer than 10 hours in each of eight subject areas, plus 480 hours of professional work experience in the credential's setting and age group, within the 3 years before the application goes in.

The Home Visitor setting is the exception in the fine print: its subject areas differ from the eight above, and its assessment process differs, as its section below explains.

The CDA credential guide covers the whole process, and the CDA requirements page breaks down each requirement.

One boundary to know before you choose: there is no civilian school-age CDA setting.

The Council's Military School-Age credential is a separate credential for military programs, so a school-age role has no CDA setting of its own to pick.

The Preschool CDA is the center-based credential for educators who work with children ages 3 to 5.

If your classroom is a preschool room in a child care center and the children are 3 to 5, this is the setting that matches your job — and the Competency Standards book you purchase for it is green.

Two Council criteria are specific to this setting.

The 480 hours of professional work experience must be in the credential's setting and age group, within the 3 years before you apply.

And the assessment itself needs a center-based program: at least 10 children enrolled and at least two caregivers working with the children on a regular basis, with the Preschool observation requiring a group of at least six children ages 3 to 5.

If part of your week is also with infants or toddlers, look closely at the Birth to Five setting above.

A schedule that rotates across ages can be hard to document inside a single-age credential, while Birth to Five is built for exactly that spread.

The Infant-Toddler CDA is the center-based credential for educators working with children from birth to 36 months — infant rooms, toddler rooms, and the teachers who work across both in a center.

Its Competency Standards book is yellow.

The experience requirement works in three sub-age groups.

Candidates need 480 hours of center-based experience with children birth to 36 months, and those hours must include all three: young infants (birth to 8 months), mobile infants (9 to 17 months) and toddlers (18 to 36 months).

Hours logged in only one sub-age group do not, on their own, meet the Council's spread.

The assessment has its own floor: the Infant-Toddler observation requires at least three children under 36 months, in a center-based program with at least 10 children enrolled and at least two caregivers working regularly.

Planning a career on the infant side?

The infant teacher career guide covers the role, its requirements and the path into infant rooms.

The Family Child Care CDA is the credential for educators working with children from birth to 5 in a family child care home — a home-based program rather than a center.

If you work in, or are building, a home daycare, this is your setting, and its Competency Standards book is blue.

Do not carry the center criteria over: the 10-children-enrolled and two-caregiver minimums are the Council's criteria for center-based settings.

What the Council looks for in a home setting is in the blue Family Child Care Competency Standards book, so read its criteria before you plan your application.

Head Start names this setting directly.

Its family child care providers must currently be enrolled in a Family Child Care CDA program (or a state equivalent) or an early childhood degree program before serving, and must earn the credential within 18 months of beginning to provide services.

That requirement and the home visitor one below are regulatory — and proposed for removal under ACF's August 2026 Head Start proposal, which had not been finalized as of October 2026.

Coming at this from the provider side?

The family child care provider guide covers the career: the role, the income picture and what running a home program involves.

The Home Visitor CDA covers families of children birth to 5, and it is the setting that works differently.

Its subject areas are its own — one is "Working across the child welfare continuum" — and its portfolio is still reviewed onsite by a Professional Development Specialist rather than uploaded.

The Home Visitor Competency Standards book is purple.

The onsite review matters more since February 2, 2026: from that date, other CDA candidates upload their professional portfolio with their application and can skip the verification visit by scoring at a qualifying level on the exam.

Home Visitor candidates remain on the onsite-review process.

Head Start requires its home visitors to hold at least a home-based CDA or comparable credential — the same requirement ACF's August 2026 proposal would remove, still pending as of October 2026.

Considering that career?

The home visitor career guide covers the role in detail.

BLS puts the general demand plainly: some states and employers require childcare workers to hold a nationally recognized credential, most often the CDA, which must be renewed every 3 years.

Read each posting for the setting it names, if it names one.

Head Start's rules name a CDA setting for some roles but not others.

Under the Office of Head Start's Performance Standards (45 CFR 1302.91), as of October 2026:

• Early Head Start center-based teachers need at least a CDA or comparable credential, plus training or coursework in infant-toddler development; the rule does not name a CDA setting.
• Head Start preschool assistant teachers need, at minimum, a CDA (or a state certificate that meets or exceeds it), enrollment in an associate or bachelor's program, or enrollment in a CDA program to finish within two years of hire; again, no CDA setting is named.
• Head Start family child care providers must be enrolled in a Family Child Care CDA program (or a state equivalent) or an ECE degree program before serving, and earn the credential within 18 months.
• Head Start home visitors need at least a home-based CDA or comparable credential.

Note the split on the preschool side: the CDA is the assistant-teacher floor, not the lead-teacher requirement.

Head Start preschool center-based teachers need at least an associate or bachelor's degree in child development or early childhood education (or equivalent coursework), and at least 50% of those teachers nationwide must hold a bachelor's.

The ground is moving.

In August 2026, ACF proposed to rescind and replace the Performance Standards; under that proposal, Head Start would keep only the statutory staff qualifications and drop the regulatory ones — including the family child care and home visitor CDA requirements above.

The Council warned publicly that the proposal could eliminate CDA-related qualification requirements for several Head Start positions, including family child care providers and home visitors.

The comment period ran to October 6, 2026, and it remained a proposal, not a final rule, as of October 2026.

Outside Head Start, credential requirements are set state by state and employer by employer: BLS notes that some states and employers require childcare workers to hold a nationally recognized credential, most often the CDA.

Browse childcare teacher jobs to see which settings centers are asking for right now.

Not through renewal.

The Council requires renewal to be in the setting of the original credential — a Preschool CDA renews as a Preschool CDA — with applications accepted up to 6 months before expiration and received by the expiration date.

Renewal keeps a credential current; it does not move you to another setting.

Each setting's 480 experience hours also have to be earned in that credential's setting and age group, so switching — a preschool room to your own family child care home, a center to home visiting — means building hours in the new setting before that setting's credential is within reach.

If you are weighing two settings, confirm with the Council how a second credential works before you plan the hours.

There is also a setting designed to avoid the question: if your center work genuinely spans birth to 5, the Birth to Five credential covers the whole range on one credential, with at least 160 of its 480 hours in each of the three sub-age groups — infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

Whichever setting you hold, the clock is the same: a CDA is valid for 3 years from the award date, and outside the Council's CDA Renewal Amnesty Program a credential past its expiration date cannot simply be renewed — the holder must reapply for a new credential.

The amnesty runs from July 6, 2026 to April 26, 2027 and covers credentials that expired as far back as January 1, 2016.

The CDA renewal guide covers deadlines and requirements in full.

This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. The CDA's requirements are set by the Council for Professional Recognition, and Head Start qualifications by the Office of Head Start; confirm current requirements with the Council, the program or your state's child care licensing agency before you apply or hire.