MERIT — the Managed Education and Registry Information Tool — is Washington's early learning workforce registry: the Professional Development & Workforce Registry run by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).
License applicants and early learning providers must register before getting an initial license or working with children unsupervised, and DCYF says all individuals must have current employment recorded in MERIT for licensing compliance.
Here is who registers, how a profile comes together, and what the record unlocks.
What is MERIT?
MERIT — the Managed Education and Registry Information Tool — is the early learning workforce registry run by the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).
DCYF describes it as Washington's Professional Development & Workforce Registry, and the rulebook that requires it — chapter 110-300 WAC, the foundational quality standards for centers and family homes — is the same chapter behind Washington's registration, training and certificate rules on this page.
The requirement is concrete.
Under WAC 110-300, license applicants and early learning providers must register with the electronic workforce registry before being granted an initial license or working with children in an unsupervised capacity.
In Washington a registry profile is a gate you clear before your first unsupervised shift.
The federal frame sits underneath: CCDF rules at 45 CFR 98.44 require each state to describe a training and professional development framework that addresses workforce information, and workforce registries are how most states track it — but the federal rule does not require individual staff to join.
Washington's own rule does the requiring here.
One navigation note: DCYF's MERIT page is where the agency explains the registry and its licensing-compliance rule, so this page points to DCYF's MERIT pages rather than quoting portal screens.
Start from DCYF's site, and treat any other address as worth double-checking before you enter personal details.
How registries work in general — what a record holds, where membership is mandatory and what levels unlock in other states — is in our guide to workforce registries.
Who has to register?
Washington's rule names two groups: license applicants and early learning providers.
Applicants register before DCYF grants an initial license, and providers register before working with children in an unsupervised capacity.
For staff, that makes registration part of onboarding at any licensed center or family home — not a voluntary professional-development extra.
The rule pairs the registry with training.
Washington early learning staff must register in the DCYF electronic workforce registry — MERIT — before working unsupervised with children, and must complete DCYF's Child Care Basics training before working unsupervised as well (WAC 110-300-0106).
Registration is the first gate; Child Care Basics is the one next to it.
A third piece keeps the record alive after hire: DCYF says all individuals must have their current employment recorded in MERIT for licensing compliance, and the rule at WAC 110-300-0115 carries the same requirement.
A profile with no employment entry is not the finished article — the employment record is what ties you to the program you work for.
Which roles need which qualifications on top of registration — aides, assistant teachers, lead teachers — is the job of our Washington teacher requirements page.
The short version for this page: registration comes before the role-specific stack does.
Rules change — confirm with DCYF
How to create a profile
The pages our research read do not document MERIT's current sign-up screens, so we won't walk you through fields and buttons that may have changed — DCYF's MERIT pages are the authority for the current steps.
What we can tell you is what the record is documented to hold — verified education, verified ECE certificates and your current employment — and what is worth having ready for those parts.
One documented detail is worth knowing before you start: Washington's Portable Background Check is applied for through MERIT, and the application requires a STARS ID number first.
If a background check is part of your onboarding, have that number in hand before you apply.
- Proof of your education, from a high school diploma or GED to a college degree
- ECE certificates you hold — Initial, Short or State
- Credentials you hold, such as a CDA
- The program you work for, so your current employment can be recorded for licensing compliance
Two habits pay off: register under the name on your government ID so your records match, and when you change centers, make sure your new employment is recorded — DCYF ties licensing compliance to your current employment being recorded.
Career levels and what they unlock
Our research did not document a labeled level scale inside MERIT — the pages we read do not name stages or tiers — so we won't invent one.
What the research does document is what the record does: the registry is where Washington verifies the education its career ladder is built on, and DCYF pays for that education in specific, dated amounts.
Start with verification.
Center directors and family home licensees must have their ECE certificates approved and verified in DCYF's electronic workforce registry, and under WAC 110-300-0100 — amended effective August 1, 2026 — directors must hold an ECE state certificate or equivalent by August 1, 2030 or within five years of hire.
Center lead teachers are on the same clock: an ECE Initial Certificate by August 1, 2030 or within five years of hire or promotion, whichever is later, then an ECE Short Certificate within two years after that.
The certificates themselves are a statewide, stackable set: the Initial ECE Certificate at 12 credits, the Short ECE Certificate of Specialization at 20 credits, and the ECE State Certificate at 47-52 credits, with common course numbers at colleges across Washington.
One caution about dates: pages still saying the Initial Certificate is due by August 2026 are outdated — the current rule says August 1, 2030 or five years from hire, whichever is later.
Then the awards.
DCYF pays one-time education awards to staff with verified education in MERIT, and the published amounts include $50 for a high school diploma or GED, $100 for an associate degree, $200 for a bachelor's, $300 for a master's and $400 for a doctorate, plus $100 per ECE major and $50 each for up to three ECE certificates (Initial, Short, State, CDA and similar).
DCYF's award sheet with these amounts was revised February 4, 2026.
None of it depends on a level label: the record itself — verified education, verified certificates, verified employment — is what a director, a credentialing body or a DCYF award reads.
The role-by-role qualification stack that sits on top is on our Washington teacher requirements page.
Recording training hours
Washington's training rules give the record real work to carry.
After 12 months of cumulative employment, early learning providers must complete 10 hours of annual in-service training, and lead teachers, assistant teachers, directors and licensees hired on or after August 1, 2019 must complete DCYF's EQEL training within 36 months (WAC 110-300-0107).
Those hours accumulate year over year — a transcript that holds them saves you from re-documenting your training every time you change jobs.
How a specific workshop or college course gets into a MERIT record was not documented in the pages our research read — confirm with DCYF before you count on a course appearing there.
The hour totals themselves, and how Washington's annual requirement compares with other states, are on our training hours guide.
The record also travels nationally.
The Council for Professional Recognition — the body that awards the CDA — accepts workforce registry transcripts from all U.S. state and territory workforce registries as part of the CDA credentialing process, so a MERIT transcript documents your training for a national credential.
Know the limit: registry membership does not satisfy the CDA renewal membership requirement — renewal requires a professional membership, and state registry membership is not one.
Using your registry ID when job hunting
In Washington the employer reason is structural, not optional: licensing compliance runs through your record.
A director has to show that staff are registered before unsupervised work and that current employment is recorded in MERIT, and for center directors and family home licensees the registry is also where certificate verification lives.
So expect MERIT registration and your employment record to be part of onboarding — and if you are already registered in MERIT, say so on your application.
One number to have ready: the Portable Background Check is applied for through MERIT and requires a STARS ID number first.
If you are coming from another state, the transcript you built there still works for the CDA: the Council for Professional Recognition accepts workforce registry transcripts from all U.S. state and territory registries, so your old registry's transcript documents your training for the credential even after you register in MERIT.
Say so on your resume — a line noting that you are registered in MERIT and trained in DCYF's Child Care Basics answers a director's first questions before they are asked.
Open positions are on our childcare teacher jobs page.
Career and employer information, not licensing or legal advice — registry requirements sit in Washington's licensing rules, chapter 110-300 WAC, so confirm the current requirement with the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).