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

The Child Care Licensing Bureau of the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) licenses Michigan child care centers, group homes and family homes.

The center rules teachers work under are R 400.8101-R 400.8840, issued under 1973 PA 116; a major revision took effect May 7, 2025.

When a requirement on this page and the bureau's current rulebook disagree, the rulebook governs.

A Michigan center lead teacher must be at least 19 years old and hold a high school diploma or GED, plus one of three qualification routes: 1 year of experience combined with MiRegistry training; 6 months of experience plus 6 semester hours, or 90 clock hours, of early childhood education coursework; or a CDA, a Montessori credential or an associate degree combined with MiRegistry training.

Two of the three carry a condition: the experience route and the 6-semester-hour route are open only to teachers working in a center that participates in Great Start to Quality, Michigan's quality rating system.

The rule requires a lead teacher only for groups of children who are preschool age and younger, and that lead teacher must be with the group full time in programs under 6 hours, or at least 6 hours a day otherwise.

Our research found no separate 'assistant teacher' qualification in the Michigan center rules; the assistant-level classroom role the rules do define is called 'teacher'.

A teacher is at least 16 years old and can count in the staff-to-child ratio, and the rule's definitions set no education minimum for the title.

Individual centers can still list their own expectations in a posting, so read each job ad before you apply.

Michigan splits new-staff training into two clocks.

Within 30 days and before caring for children, staff must be trained on shaken baby syndrome, abusive head trauma, child maltreatment prevention, and recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect — plus SIDS and safe sleep when the program serves infants or toddlers.

Within 90 days and before caring for children unsupervised, the rule adds medication administration, food allergy, premises safety, hazardous materials, child development, and pediatric first aid and CPR.

Separately, every staff member and volunteer signs a statement at hire acknowledging they are a mandated reporter of child abuse and neglect.

Michigan center program staff complete 16 clock hours of professional development in each calendar year.

Staff at small capacity centers — the rulebook's category for centers of 20 or fewer children — complete 10 hours instead.

CPR and first aid hours may count toward the total.

Pediatric first aid and CPR sit in the 90-day training set, due before a staff member cares for children unsupervised; the rule's CPR list runs pediatric, infant, child and adult.

On top of individual training, the department verifies that at least 50% of a center's program staff hold current pediatric first aid and CPR before it issues or renews a license.

On other health checks, our research did not find a TB test requirement for center staff in the 2025 center rules; the rules list tuberculosis only under communicable disease provisions, so ask the Child Care Licensing Bureau what documentation it currently expects.

Michigan requires a comprehensive background check, under MCL 722.115n and MCL 722.115q, completed before a person has unsupervised contact with children.

While the determination is pending, the person may work only if they are always supervised by the licensee or an eligible child care staff member.

The center enrolls each new person in the department's child care background check system, and applicants who lived outside Michigan during the last 5 years must list every out-of-state address.

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

Lead teachers assigned to infants and toddlers owe one more qualification: within 6 months of hire, they must complete 3 semester hours, 4.5 CEUs or 45 hours of a MiRegistry-approved infant-toddler track.

The 30-day pre-service set reinforces the age band: programs serving infants or toddlers add SIDS and safe sleep training to the abusive head trauma, shaken baby syndrome and maltreatment topics every new staff member takes.

MiRegistry is the registry Michigan's center rules write into staffing: within 30 calendar days after employment, all program staff, unsupervised volunteers and substitute teachers must have an individual MiRegistry account, active membership and a verified employment entry.

The same system appears in the qualification rules: the 1-year-experience and CDA/Montessori/associate-degree lead-teacher routes pair with MiRegistry training, and the infant-toddler track must be MiRegistry-approved.

Michigan's center rulebook went through a major revision effective May 7, 2025, and the lead-teacher qualification routes now lean on MiRegistry training and on Great Start to Quality participation — several lead-teacher routes are open only to staff at centers that participate in Great Start to Quality.

The current rules also set the 30-day MiRegistry account, membership and employment-entry requirement.

Lead teachers and directors already qualified under the old Michigan rules stay qualified as long as they remain continuously employed without a break of more than 180 days.