What Are the Requirements to Be a Daycare Teacher in West Virginia?

West Virginia licenses child care centers under Legislative Rule 78CSR1, Child Care Centers Licensing, effective April 1, 2023 and issued under West Virginia Code §49-2-121.

The rule text still carries the old Department of Health and Human Resources header, but licensing now sits with the Division of Early Care and Education of the West Virginia Department of Human Services. 78CSR1 sets the center's job titles — director, assistant director/lead teacher, teacher, assistant teacher, teaching assistant, teen aide, student intern and substitute — and requires each qualified staff member to hold a high school diploma or GED.

The rule is set to sunset on August 1, 2028.

The rule sets different minimums for its two senior classroom titles.

A 'teacher' — the rule's classroom lead — must be at least 18 with at least one year of relevant work experience, plus one of: the West Virginia Training Certificate in Early Care and Education (WVTCECE); a CDA plus 300 hours of experience; 12 ECE college credits plus 300 hours; or two years of relevant work experience.

An 'assistant director/lead teacher' must be at least 21 with one year of relevant experience plus a CDA or 12 ECE credits (each with 300 hours), two years of relevant work experience, the Registered Apprenticeship Certificate for Child Development Specialist, or 28 college credits including 9 in early childhood development.

The apprenticeship certificate comes from the Apprenticeship for Child Development Specialist (ACDS), a four-semester program for people already employed in early childhood that combines classroom instruction and work experience.

The rule gives assistants their own titles with their own minimums.

An assistant teacher must be at least 18 with one year of relevant experience and a WVTCECE or its equivalent.

A teaching assistant is one step short of that: at least 18 and enrolled in the WVTCECE program or its equivalent, and the rule says a teaching assistant may not be responsible for a group of children.

Whichever assistant title you hold, the qualified-staff baseline still applies: a high school diploma or GED.

The WVTCECE — one qualification route for a teacher and the certificate an assistant teacher needs, or its equivalent — is a certificate for completing 120 hours of training in the core competencies of early childhood education, awarded through the WV STARS Professional Development System.

If a center wants to hire you before the rule's pre-service education and training requirements are complete, it may offer conditional employment for a lead teacher or teacher position for up to three months.

Our research did not confirm the rule's itemized pre-service module list for centers; the Division of Early Care and Education can tell you what your first months must cover.

Approved training runs on a 15-hour rhythm.

Every qualified staff member completes 15 hours of approved training in their first year, and within that first-year total the rule directs six hours to the staff member's age group; directors instead take six hours of management training.

Qualified staff must also apply for credentialing on the WV STARS Career Pathway.

Every year after the first, at least 15 hours of approved training are due again.

Staff must hold current pediatric CPR certification and current first aid training within three months of employment.

After the first year, CPR and first aid hours sit in addition to the 15 annual training hours, not inside them.

The rule also requires a staff health assessment performed no more than 90 days before hire and on file within 30 days, including a tuberculosis risk assessment and, if the risk assessment indicates one, a TB screening by the Mantoux method; the assessment is updated every two years.

West Virginia requires a state and federal fingerprint-based criminal background investigation on each center staff member and volunteer through WV CARES, the West Virginia Clearance for Access: Registry and Employment Screening Act (West Virginia Code §16-49-1 et seq.).

On top of the fingerprint check, the rule adds sex offender registry checks and out-of-state checks for anyone who lived in another state in the past five years.

Ask the center's director what to submit and when you can start work.

Yes.

Before starting an infant/toddler program, each qualified staff member caring for children 24 months and under must have received a minimum of 40 hours of approved training related to the care of children 24 months of age and under.

That sits on top of the position's own qualification, so the 40 hours are a separate milestone for an already-qualified teacher or assistant teacher moving into an infant or toddler room.

The rule's title list includes a teen aide and a student intern, but every qualified-staff title on this page starts at 18 or 21.

One teen route the rule does spell out is a student intern aged 17 or older who is a Youth Apprentice in the second year of the West Virginia Department of Education's Child Development Specialist program: that intern may count in ratio but may not work alone.

Beyond that, our research did not establish rules for 16- and 17-year-olds in center classrooms; ask the Division of Early Care and Education about under-18 positions.

WV STARS — the West Virginia State Training and Registry System — is the state's professional development registry for early childhood professionals, and the rule folds it into the job: every qualified staff member must apply for credentialing on the WV STARS Career Pathway, which places professionals on levels by education and experience.

WV STARS also credentials trainers and offers scholarship and wage incentive programs for child care providers; the terms of those programs were not verified in our research.

West Virginia's current center rule, 78CSR1, took effect April 1, 2023, and it carries a sunset date: the rule is set to terminate and have no further force or effect on August 1, 2028.

Because the rulebook itself carries an end date, the requirements on this page can change; confirm the current text with the Division of Early Care and Education before you rely on a date or a deadline.