How Do You Verify a CDA Credential?

One body awards the CDA — the Council for Professional Recognition — so one body holds the record that says whether a credential is current.

That record is searchable: the Council runs an online CDA Certificate Search, and entering the CDA certificate number in the search box returns the credential's status.

Three statuses are possible: Active, Expired or Revoked.

The search is keyed to the certificate number, so that number is the input to have before you start.

Candidates can read it off their own certificate, and an employer can simply ask the candidate or employee for the number on theirs.

A status that comes straight from the issuing body is stronger evidence than a photocopy or a resume line: Active is the Council itself confirming the credential is current.

What Expired and Revoked each mean is covered below, because they matter differently for a holder than for an employer.

When the Council awards a CDA, it delivers the credential as a digital certificate and badge through Credly.

A printed certificate is available for $30 if you want a hard copy for your files.

For a job application, name the credential precisely.

As of October 2026 the Council offers the CDA in five settings — center-based Infant-Toddler, center-based Preschool, center-based Birth to Five, Family Child Care and Home Visitor — and the setting tells an employer what your training and assessment covered.

Then make the credential checkable: hand over the certificate number so the employer can run the Council's search and see the status for themselves.

It helps to know why employers check at all.

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 what the credential documents and how you earn it, see the CDA credential guide.

A status check answers one question — is this credential current? — and the Council's search returns a status, not a coursework record.

The training behind the credential is documented separately, by whoever documented the training: a training organization or a state workforce registry.

The Council is not the training provider.

It does not provide CDA training or endorse any training program, so the 120 hours of formal early childhood education training behind an application — with no fewer than 10 hours in each of the eight CDA subject areas — are documented by the organization that delivered them.

One documented route is a state workforce registry.

The Council accepts workforce registry transcripts from all U.S. state and territory workforce registries for the CDA, and partners with the National Workforce Registry Alliance through a memorandum of understanding.

If your hours are recorded in your state's registry, request the transcript there; if not, request it from the training organization that issued the hours.

Reading a transcript against the Council's conversion rules: 1 CEU converts to 10 clock hours, 1 semester credit to 15 clock hours and 1 quarter credit to 10 clock hours.

An employer who wants the coursework detail behind a hire can ask for the same transcript a candidate would request.

The statuses mean different things because of the renewal clock.

A CDA is valid for 3 years from the award date, so Active means the credential is inside that window; Expired means the window closed without a renewal.

Renewal is what keeps a credential Active.

Renewal applications can be submitted up to 6 months before expiration and must be received by the expiration date, and the renewal must be in the setting of the original credential.

Renewal costs $250 per cycle and carries its own requirements — a training requirement with CEU, college-credit or clock-hour options, membership in an early childhood professional organization, at least 80 hours working with young children in the past year, and a recommendation from an ECE Reviewer.

The deadlines and documents are laid out in the CDA renewal guide.

Expired is the serious status.

If a CDA expires, the holder must reapply for a new credential — the Council allows no exceptions or extensions to the renewal deadline outside its amnesty program.

That program is live now: from July 6, 2026 to April 26, 2027 at 11:59 PM EST, anyone whose CDA expired as far back as January 1, 2016 can renew by meeting all current renewal requirements and paying $250 online.

Revoked is the third status the search can return.

The Council's lookup page lists it without describing the process behind it on the pages this article is based on, so this page will not guess at one — a Revoked result is a question for the Council, which administers the credential and its records.

If you are the one hiring, run the lookup as part of screening whenever a posting or resume lists a CDA: enter the certificate number from the candidate's certificate into the Council's Certificate Search and read the status it returns.

It is the issuing body's own check, and it works the same way for a new hire and for a current employee.

Once a credential checks out, four things belong in the file:

• A copy of the certificate — the digital certificate or the printed version
• The certificate number, so anyone on your team can re-run the search later
• The credential's setting — center-based Infant-Toddler, Preschool, Birth to Five, Family Child Care or Home Visitor — so you know which age group it covers
• The award date, so you can track the 3-year renewal window

Two of those items earn their place.

The setting matters because a renewal must be completed in the setting of the original credential, so the setting on file tells you what the credential actually covers as it moves through renewals.

The award date matters because renewal applications must be received by the expiration date, and the Council allows no extensions outside the amnesty program — so the date the credential lapses is knowable in advance.

And keep the check in proportion.

Whether your staff must hold a CDA at all is not answered by the Council's records — BLS notes that some states and employers require childcare workers to hold a nationally recognized credential, most often the CDA — so confirm the qualification rule for each role with your state child care licensing agency before you write it into a posting.

The Council's search verifies the credential; the rest of a staff file is governed elsewhere.

For the wider process, see our guide to how to hire childcare staff.

This page is career and employer information, not licensing or legal advice. The CDA and its records are administered by the Council for Professional Recognition; staff qualification rules are set by each state's child care licensing agency. Confirm the current requirements with the body that administers them before you apply or hire.