What Are the Requirements to Be a Daycare Teacher in Georgia?

Georgia child care learning centers are licensed by Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), under Ga.

Comp.

R. & Regs. 591-1-1, the Rules and Regulations for Child Care Learning Centers.

The chapter defines a center as any place receiving seven or more children under 18 for pay for group care for fewer than 24 hours a day.

The Georgia rules on this page come from that chapter, so when anything here and DECAL's current rulebook disagree, the rulebook governs — confirm details with DECAL before you rely on them.

Georgia writes its lead-teacher qualifications for centers with a licensed capacity of 19 or more children: each group of children must have a designated teacher/lead caregiver.

That person must be at least 18 years old and, at the time of employment, hold one of the credentials the rule lists: a CDA; a technical certificate of credit (TCC) in early childhood education or child development, infant and toddler, program administration, or school age; a TCD or associate degree in ECE or child development; a GaPSC Paraprofessional Certificate; 15 semester hours or 25 quarter hours of ECE or child development coursework; or a bachelor's or master's degree, with a non-ECE bachelor's requiring 3 months of experience.

The CDA is one accepted credential among several, not the only route.

A center can also hire a lead teacher who lacks a credential when the teacher enrolls in a qualifying program within 6 months of employment and completes it within 18 months of enrollment, with the center keeping a written professional development plan on file.

Our research covered center licensing, not Georgia's Pre-K program: GA Pre-K lead and assistant teacher credential rules were not captured, so confirm them with DECAL.

Georgia sets the caregiver/aide minimum by center size.

In centers licensed for 19 or more children, caregivers and aides assisting the lead teacher must be at least 16 years old, and no 16- or 17-year-old caregiver may be solely responsible for children.

In centers licensed for 18 or fewer children, caregivers and aides must be at least 18.

Our research found no credential requirement for aides: the rule's credential list covers the designated teacher/lead caregiver for each group.

A center can still set stricter requirements in its own job postings, so read each posting for what that employer wants.

Within the first 90 days of employment, each staff member with direct care responsibilities must complete DECAL-approved health and safety orientation training.

The orientation covers 11 CCDF topics, including safe sleep, medication administration, abusive head trauma, emergency preparedness and child abuse reporting.

Pediatric CPR and first aid certification is a separate deadline with its own 45-day window, described below.

Every calendar year after the first year of employment, Georgia center supervisory and caregiver staff complete 10 clock hours of training.

At least 2 hours must be in language and literacy practices and at least 2 hours in child development or health and safety, with no more than 2 hours in business topics.

The rule excepts independent contractors, students-in-training and volunteers from that group.

CPR and first aid certification hours do not count toward the annual training requirement.

All center staff who provide direct care to children must obtain certification in a biennial pediatric CPR training program and a triennial pediatric first aid training program within the first 45 days of employment.

Coverage is a floor as well: whenever any child is present, at least 50 percent of the caregiver staff present must be trained in pediatric CPR and first aid, and each classroom with children must have at least one trained staff person.

On health checks more broadly, our research did not capture Georgia's staff health screening requirements for center employees, such as tuberculosis screening — confirm the current documentation requirements with DECAL.

Every Georgia center director, employee and provisional employee must submit a Records Check Application to DECAL and fingerprints to an authorized fingerprinting site, and directors and employees need a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination before being present while children are in care.

The determination rests on an FBI fingerprint-based criminal record check plus registry searches, and provisional employees must request child abuse and neglect registry information and criminal history records from every state, territory or tribal land other than Georgia where they lived during the preceding five years.

The check repeats: staff must be re-checked at least once every five years, after a 180-day lapse in child care employment, or upon arrest for a covered crime.

A federal floor sits underneath: under the CCDF rules, every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider must have a comprehensive background check.

Georgia's workforce registry and professional development system is the Georgia Professional Development System (GaPDS).

The licensing rule lets a center document orientation and training in the staff member's personnel file and/or in GaPDS, and it does not make GaPDS membership a licensing requirement on its own.

The tie to watch is Quality Rated, Georgia's quality rating system, which awards one, two or three stars.

Participation is voluntary, but since December 31, 2021 a provider must be Quality Rated (or in Provisional or Probationary status) to receive CAPS subsidy funding.

The Quality Rated Program Manual requires all instructional and administrative staff of a Quality Rated program to be registered in GaPDS.