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

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services licenses Kentucky child care centers.

The rulebook teachers work under sits in Title 922 of the Kentucky Administrative Regulations: 922 KAR 2:090 for licensure, including director and staff requirements; 922 KAR 2:120 for health and safety; and 922 KAR 2:280 for background checks.

Family child-care homes are certified separately, under 922 KAR 2:100.

Staff qualifications live in 922 KAR 2:090 Sections 10-11 — the older provider-requirements regulation, 922 KAR 2:110, is inactive and was repealed, so it is not the chapter to read. 922 KAR 2:090 was last amended effective February 13, 2025.

Kentucky writes its education standard around job function rather than job titles: a center staff person hired after January 1, 2009 who has supervisory power over a child must hold a high school diploma, a GED or the Commonwealth Child Care Credential.

The rule's wording covers staff who are not enrolled in secondary education; how the cabinet applies that to a current student hire is something to confirm with the agency.

The credential route is Kentucky's own: the Commonwealth Child Care Credential requires being at least 18, working in a licensed or certified Kentucky facility, and completing 60 hours of approved instruction within two years, and it renews each year on 15 more training hours.

Individual centers may ask for more than the licensing floor, so read each job posting.

Our research did not confirm a Kentucky minimum written specifically for assistant teachers.

The education standard the center rule sets is keyed to job function rather than job titles: a staff person hired after January 1, 2009 who has supervisory power over a child must hold a high school diploma, a GED or the Commonwealth Child Care Credential.

Whether a particular assistant role carries supervisory power, and so which parts of the rule reach it, is a question for the hiring center and for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Kentucky requires staff with supervisory authority to complete 6 hours of cabinet-approved orientation within the first three months of employment.

The rule lists what it covers: the federal health and safety topics, child abuse reporting and developmentally appropriate practice.

Kentucky center staff need 9 hours of approved training in the first year, and 1.5 of those hours must cover pediatric abusive head trauma.

From then on, the rule requires 15 hours of cabinet-approved early care and education training completed between July 1 and the following June 30 of each subsequent year of employment.

Under 2026 HB 6, at least 3 of a licensed child-care provider's annual training hours must focus on working with children with special needs — certified family child-care homes owe 2 of their hours to that topic.

The bill became law without the Governor's signature on April 14, 2026 and carried an emergency clause; its implementing regulations may lag the statute, so confirm the currently enforced hour rules with the cabinet.

The rule also caps how fast hours accumulate: a staff person may not log more than 15 training hours in any 24-hour period.

Kentucky does not require every staff member to hold CPR and first aid: for staff on duty with infants, toddlers or preschoolers, at least one person on duty and present with the children must be currently certified in infant and child CPR and first aid by a cabinet-approved training agency.

On health checks, center staff must show they are free of active tuberculosis before employment and every two years after, using either a statement from a health professional or a negative TB test.

Which staff member carries the CPR certificate on a given shift is a staffing decision for the center, so ask the director how they cover it.

Kentucky child care background checks are fingerprint-supported and pull several sources: a Kentucky State Police criminal record check, a national FBI check with rap back notification, the child abuse and neglect central registry, the National Sex Offender Public Website and the state sex offender registry.

For the check itself, a child care provider enrolled in the Kentucky NBCP pays a fee not to exceed $30 on top of other fees.

If you lived in another state within the last five years, the cabinet must also run that state's criminal, sex offender registry and child abuse checks, and the employer pays any fee the other state charges.

Our research did not confirm a processing timeline, so ask the hiring center or the cabinet where a specific check stands.

One topic Kentucky names in a teacher's first year is pediatric abusive head trauma: 1.5 of the 9 first-year training hours cover it.

The 6 orientation hours cover the federal health and safety topics, and that federal list includes prevention of sudden infant death syndrome and safe sleeping practices.

Rooms with infants, toddlers or preschoolers are also where the CPR rule applies: at least one person on duty and present with the children must hold current infant and child CPR and first aid from a cabinet-approved training agency.

Our research did not confirm a Kentucky safe-sleep rule written specifically for infant-room staff, so ask the cabinet what it currently requires for infant-room assignments.

Kentucky verifies staff training through the cabinet's training database, under the separate regulation 922 KAR 2:240.

Completed hours therefore need to reach the state's system rather than stay only on a center's own records.

Our research did not confirm how out-of-state training transfers into Kentucky's system, so ask the cabinet or the hiring center before you count previous coursework.

Kentucky's center rulebook, 922 KAR 2:090, was amended effective February 13, 2025, and the older provider-requirements regulation, 922 KAR 2:110, is inactive and repealed.

On April 14, 2026, House Bill 6 became law without the Governor's signature (Acts Ch. 146); among other changes it directs that at least 3 of a licensed child-care provider's annual training hours focus on working with children with special needs.

The bill carried an emergency clause, and its implementing regulations may lag the statute, so confirm the currently enforced rules with the cabinet before you plan a training year.