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

Indiana child care centers and homes are licensed by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration's Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL).

The center rules a daycare teacher works under are 470 IAC 3-4.7, which sits under Indiana Code Title 12, Article 17.2; child care homes follow separate rules.

This page covers who can count in ratio, the training clock, the health checks and the background check, and flags three places where 2025 changes to the statute updated the picture: pediatric CPR and first aid, tuberculosis testing, and the student-volunteer route.

OECOSL summarizes the CPR and tuberculosis changes on its legislative changes page.

Indiana's center rule sets the requirement for lead caregivers, its qualified classroom role.

A lead caregiver needs at least one of four credentials: a current CDA; a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or elementary education with a kindergarten endorsement; any bachelor's degree with 15 credit hours in early childhood content; or an associate degree in early childhood education.

Like every caregiver counted in ratio, a lead caregiver must also be at least 18 with a high school diploma or equivalency.

A lead caregiver who has none of the four credentials must take 8 extra in-service hours a year, enroll in a qualifying program within 1 year, and complete at least 6 credit hours a year.

Our research found no separate assistant-teacher qualification in the Indiana center rules: the standard that matters is the one for every caregiver counted in child/staff ratios.

Each must be at least 18 years old and hold a high school diploma or equivalency, plus the reading and writing skills needed to handle emergencies, medication and child records.

There is one younger route: a 2025 change to the statute lets a student at least 15 years old who is exploring an early childhood career count in a center's ratio as a volunteer, supervised at all times by an authorized adult.

An assistant aiming to lead a classroom works toward the lead caregiver credentials above.

Indiana center staff must receive orientation before having direct contact with children or food.

The orientation covers children's needs, the discipline policy, evacuation procedures, health and medication procedures, and universal precautions.

Two other early clocks run alongside it: a physical exam is due within 30 days of employment, and pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid training within 90 days of starting — both are covered below.

Indiana center directors and everyone counted in a child/staff ratio need at least 12 clock hours of in-service training each year, on top of first aid, CPR and universal precautions training.

A lead caregiver who is still working toward a qualification takes 8 extra in-service hours a year on top of that.

The rule sets both as annual minimums, so the hours come due again every year you work in a counted role.

Since July 1, 2025, all Indiana child care staff and volunteers — in centers, homes, ministries and exempt providers — must be trained in pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid within 90 days of starting, and at least one certified person must be present at all times.

In centers, all infant and toddler staff must hold pediatric CPR certification.

New center staff, volunteers and substitutes also need a physical exam showing no infectious communicable disease within 30 days of employment.

Tuberculosis testing is in transition: the administrative rules still require a TB (Mantoux) test for center and home staff, but a 2025 law removed the statutory requirement, and OECOSL is accepting a single variance per site to omit TB testing until the rules are updated.

Indiana's child care background check pairs a fingerprint-based criminal history check, which includes applicable juvenile history, with a check of the Indiana Child Protection Index; people who lived in another state also need out-of-state checks.

Fingerprints are redone every 3 years, or after 180 or more days out of Indiana child care.

A new hire can begin work on OECOSL provisional status while the checks finish, but only under direct visual supervision at all times by someone with a qualified result from the past 3 years.