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

Oklahoma child care centers are licensed by Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) Child Care Services.

The center rules sit in the Oklahoma Administrative Code at OAC 340:110-3-275 through 340:110-3-311, published as Licensing Requirements for Child Care Programs, with the current edition effective November 1, 2025.

Those sections set who can hold each classroom role, the training each role completes before starting and every year, and the background checks staff clear before hire or access to children.

Where a requirement on this page and the agency's current rulebook disagree, the rulebook governs.

Oklahoma's center rules name three teaching roles: assistant teacher, teacher and master teacher.

The teacher tier is the middle of the rule's three teaching roles, and it starts at at least 18 years old with a high school diploma, GED or licensing-approved equivalent.

The rule also lets someone who has completed 10th grade and is in the process of obtaining a GED work as a teacher for a period not to exceed 12 months from employment.

Above that tier, centers must employ at least one master teacher for every 60 children of licensed capacity, and a master teacher must be 18 or older with a diploma or GED and an Oklahoma Professional Development Ladder (OPDL) certificate at Level 4 or higher.

Every teaching employee must also obtain and maintain a current OPDL certificate prior to or within 12 months of employment.

Assistant teachers must be at least 16 years of age.

The rule caps solo oversight: an assistant teacher may not oversee a group alone for more than 3 hours a day, and a director, master teacher or teacher oversees the work, supervising no more than two assistants.

Assistant teachers are teaching personnel under the rule, so the same deadlines apply: approved entry-level training before or within 90 calendar days of employment, an OPDL certificate prior to or within 12 months, and CPR and first aid certification within three months.

Teaching personnel hired after Aug. 1, 2003 must complete an approved entry-level training before or within 90 calendar days of employment; the rule names the Entry Level Child Care Training (ELCCT) or an equivalent.

Orientation is the earlier deadline: personnel complete it within one week of employment and before having sole responsibility for a group.

The orientation covers licensing requirements, safe sleep, abusive head trauma, medication, child abuse reporting and other federal CCDF topics.

The annual hours attached to the Oklahoma Professional Development Ladder certificate depend on your ladder level.

OPDL Level 1 requires 12 clock hours of ECE/CD/SA training in the past 12 months, and most ladder levels renew with 20 hours of training a year.

Infection control training is also required at least every 12 months.

At all times, at least one person with current CPR and first aid certification must be present with children — on site in each building, off site, and in each vehicle.

Teachers and assistant teachers must obtain CPR and first aid certification within three months of employment.

Beyond CPR and first aid, the one-week orientation covers safe sleep, abusive head trauma and medication, and infection control training is required at least every 12 months.

On pre-employment health screening, our research confirms the training requirements above but did not confirm a separate medical exam requirement for Oklahoma center staff; ask OKDHS Child Care Services what documentation it expects before your first day.

Before hire or access to children, Oklahoma centers request background investigations through the OKDHS Office of Background Investigations.

The investigation includes a national fingerprint-based search and a check of the Restricted Registry, known as Joshua's List.

Criminal history reviews, excluding fingerprinting, are resubmitted every five years.

Federal CCDF rules (45 CFR 98.43) set the national floor: every child care staff member of a licensed provider must have a comprehensive background check, and Oklahoma runs its process through OKDHS.

Ask the center you are applying to how it starts the request, and confirm current steps with OKDHS Child Care Services.

Oklahoma tracks teaching credentials through the Oklahoma Professional Development Registry (OPDR), run through the Center for Early Childhood Professional Development.

The OPDL certificate that teaching personnel must obtain and maintain prior to or within 12 months of employment is recorded there, and the ladder rungs map to education and training: Level 4 is the Oklahoma Competency Certificate level, Level 5 is a current CDA or CCP or 12 credit hours, Level 9 is an ECE associate degree and Level 11 is an ECE bachelor's.

The CDA is awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition.

Ladder level matters for advancement, because centers need at least one master teacher — OPDL Level 4 or higher — for every 60 children of licensed capacity.