CCEI vs ProSolutions vs Cox Campus: Which Online Childcare Training Counts for Licensing?

Acceptance is decided state by state. Whatever a training company's website says, your state's child care licensing agency — and, where the state has one, its workforce registry — decides whether a provider's hours count.

Some vendors, Care Courses and ProSolutions among them, market their courses as accepted nationwide on their own sites; that wording is the vendor's marketing, not an agency's confirmation.

Two different bodies answer two different questions, and it pays to know which one you are asking.

Your state licensing agency decides whether a provider's hours count toward the training it requires: the federal CCDF rule (45 CFR 98.41) lists 11 required health-and-safety training topics for providers serving subsidy families, states must require pre-service or orientation health-and-safety training finished within three months, and each state sets its own annual-hours minimum — the federal rule sets no number.

The Council for Professional Recognition, which awards the CDA, answers a narrower question: it provides no training and endorses no training program, and for CDA purposes it accepts training only from an organization with early childhood teacher-preparation expertise — not from individual consultants or conferences.

Our research did not confirm state-by-state acceptance lists for CCEI, ProSolutions, Care Courses or Cox Campus, so the method that works everywhere is verify before you pay.

Ask your state agency which providers' hours count for the requirement you are meeting, and keep every completion certificate.

CCEI is the abbreviation for ChildCare Education Institute — the same organization under either name, and the target of searches like "ccei childcare training." Two things our research did confirm come from its own site and a credit evaluator: the catalog lists 45 certificate programs, CDA training among them, with subscription pricing for individuals and centers (the numbers are in the price section below), and the site shows an IACET logo — though we did not verify CCEI's Authorized Provider status with IACET.

On the credit side, NCCRS recommends 10 lower-division semester hours in Human/Child Development or ECE for CCEI's Online College Credit Eligible CDA Certificate, a 155-hour online program (up to one year).

A recommendation is not automatic credit — each college decides whether to accept it.

What our research could not confirm about CCEI specifically: which states accept its hours for licensing, and course-level approval claims.

Those are exactly the details that decide whether it is the right pick for you, so before you enroll:

1. Ask your state licensing agency or registry whether CCEI courses count toward the specific requirement you are meeting — pre-service training, annual hours, or a named topic on your state's list.
2. Match courses to topics, not just to an hour total, so nothing your state requires is left uncovered.
3. If you are using CCEI toward the CDA, the coursework has to satisfy the Council's rule: training from an organization with early childhood teacher-preparation expertise, totaling 120 hours with no fewer than 10 hours in each of the eight subject areas.
4. Keep the completion certificates — hours documented as CEUs convert at a fixed rate later (for CDA purposes, 1 CEU = 10 clock hours).

One CCEI-specific tip: state lists and registries may carry the provider under either name, so search both "CCEI" and "ChildCare Education Institute" before concluding a course is not accepted.

ProSolutions is the company behind the "prosolutions training" searches.

Its own site markets its courses as accepted nationwide — the vendor wording this page keeps flagging, because acceptance is decided by state agencies and registries, not granted by providers.

One verified state example from our research: Tennessee's free Child Care Online Training System (TCCOTS) runs on ProSolutions, and its trainings meet Tennessee's licensing and CCDBG requirements.

The practical angle with any provider, ProSolutions included, is documentation.

The certificate is what survives the enrollment: it should state the course titles, the dates, and the hours — in clock hours or CEUs.

CEUs are the portable form.

The federal CCDF rule says ongoing training should award continuing education units or be credit-bearing where practicable, and for CDA purposes 1 CEU equals 10 clock hours, while 120 clock hours equals 12 CEUs or 8 semester credits.

Beyond that Tennessee example, what our research did not verify for ProSolutions: the states that accept its hours, its current prices, and how its catalog maps to individual state topic lists.

Your state also sets the annual-hours minimum any of this training has to fill — there is no federal number — so confirm both the acceptance and the hour target with your state licensing agency and registry before you buy.

They are the same organization.

ChildCare Education Institute is the full name and CCEI the abbreviation it is listed under, so there is no "CCEI vs ChildCare Education Institute" decision to make.

The disambiguation still matters, because these searches brush against several similarly named companies:

• CCEI / ChildCare Education Institute — one online training provider; both names refer to it.
• ChildCareEd — a separate training company with a similar name; its own site describes online and live instructor-led early childhood training, some free courses, full CDA training for the Preschool, Infant-Toddler and Family Child Care settings, and CDA renewal training.
• Care Courses — another distinct provider, covered in the next section.

When you check a state agency's or registry's accepted-training list, search the full name from the provider's own site rather than the acronym.

And keep the categories straight: completing a provider's training is not a credential.

The CDA is awarded only by the Council for Professional Recognition — providers sell the coursework that helps you meet its requirements.

Cox Campus describes itself as a free online learning platform offering IACET-accredited courses, founded in 2014.

That is the provider's own description, and our research did not independently verify it — nor does it answer the question this page turns on: whether your state accepts Cox Campus hours for licensing.

That check runs through your state's child care licensing agency and registry exactly as it does for a paid provider.

Free changes the price, not the test.

If your state accepts the hours, free coursework fills them at no cost; if it does not, the same coursework can still be worth taking as professional development — just not as a stand-in for training your state requires.

However the hours end up documented, the CDA's conversion rate is fixed: 1 CEU = 10 clock hours.

For a broader tour of no-cost options and what their certificates are worth, see our guide to free online childcare training with certificates.

Care Courses is another of the training providers early educators find online, and its own site markets its courses as accepted nationwide.

The same caveat applies: that is the vendor's claim, and each state's child care licensing agency or registry makes the actual decision.

Our research did not verify which states accept Care Courses hours, or its current prices.

Another name in this space: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension offers online child care courses with certificates for state-mandated training, professional development and CDA renewal — its course prices and Texas acceptance were not part of what our research verified.

Beyond the brand names, the same two checks settle every "does this count?" question.

For your state's requirements, the licensing agency — and the registry where one exists — decides.

For the CDA, the Council's own test is about the kind of organization providing the training: it must be an organization with early childhood teacher-preparation expertise — training from individual consultants or conferences is not accepted.

Training from an individual consultant or a conference will not fill the 120 training hours even when the topic is relevant.

One place where "online" needs extra care is skills demonstration.

For pediatric first aid and CPR, card validity periods and whether an online-only course is accepted are state- or certifier-specific, and our national research did not confirm them.

Ask your state licensing agency or your certifier before counting an online-only skills course toward a licensing requirement.

Price is where this comparison has to be honest: training providers set and change their own prices, and our research verified list prices for one provider only.

CCEI's own site lists an individual annual professional development subscription at $99/year and center subscriptions at $499/year (20 users) and $999/year (50 users) — vendor list prices as of 2026-10-05 that promotions can change.

ProSolutions and Care Courses pricing was not verified, and Cox Campus is the one that describes itself as free.

What can be pinned down exactly on the other side is the Council-side cost, because the Council sets its fees the same way regardless of provider:

• Initial CDA assessment: $525, paid online at application — non-refundable and non-transferable.
• Renewal: $250 — a CDA is valid for 3 years from the award date.
• Exam retake: $125 per attempt, up to two additional attempts after an unsuccessful exam.

A "CDA package" from any provider covers only the training side.

Read it in clock hours or CEUs, not in course count: the CDA needs 120 hours of formal training with no fewer than 10 hours in each of the eight subject areas, 120 clock hours equals 12 CEUs or 8 semester credits, and none of it touches the other eligibility piece — 480 hours of professional work experience in the credential's setting and age group within 3 years before you apply.

The Council's fees above come on top of whatever the package costs.

CEUs keep paying off after the credential too: renewal takes 4.5 CEUs, or a 3-credit college course, or 45 clock hours of early childhood education training.

If cost is the constraint, the Council says income-eligible candidates may have their state pay for all or part of CDA training and possibly the assessment fee, with funding organizations listed by state on its CDA Scholarships page.

And if you will test in Spanish, note that English and Spanish CDA exams are both taken at Pearson VUE test centers, scheduled through Pearson VUE rather than the Council.

Providers sell these packages against a requirement the BLS names: some states and employers require childcare workers to hold a nationally recognized credential — most often the CDA, which must be renewed every 3 years.

Compare packages the way you would any purchase: hours your state actually accepts, documented CEUs, subject-area coverage, and total cost including the Council's fees.

For where the hours themselves can come from, see our guide to CDA prep courses.

This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. Confirm training requirements with your state's child care licensing agency, and CDA rules with the Council for Professional Recognition.