You become an approved childcare trainer by clearing a state's trainer-approval process where one exists, then delivering training that counts toward the hours childcare staff must complete.
Approval is issued state by state, and in the states we researched it looks different in each: Georgia approves trainers through GaPDS, Kentucky lists credentialed trainers through ECE-TRIS, and Wyoming STARS approves all training and trainers for licensed providers.
Below: the job, the approval path, the pay, and the CDA Professional Development Specialist route.
What does a childcare trainer do?
A childcare trainer teaches the adults: teachers, assistants, aides, directors, floaters and family child care providers.
Instead of running a classroom, you deliver the orientations, required training hours and health-and-safety refreshers that early childhood staff complete as part of their jobs.
The demand for trainers is written into state licensing rules, which set how many training hours staff must complete — and in the state rules named here, the hours count only when the training or the trainer is approved.
Montana requires staff and owners working more than 500 hours a year to complete Practitioner Registry-approved annual training: 16 hours in licensed centers and registered group and family facilities, 8 hours in licensed school-age care and registered FFN care (ARM 37.96.915).
Montana also requires staff who must take orientation to complete a DPHHS-approved health and safety refresher course at least every three years (ARM 37.96.918).
In Wyoming, staff working 24 or more hours a month who provide direct care or count in ratio must complete 32 training credits every two years; directors must complete them regardless of their hours — split into 8 core credits and 24 elective credits in early learning, early childhood or child development (Wyoming DFS Child Care Licensing rules, Chapter 4).
Head Start adds a federal floor: its staff must complete at least 15 clock hours of professional development per year (45 CFR 1302.92(b)(1)).
Louisiana adds a state one: center staff who are left alone with children or supervise them must earn at least 12 clock hours of continuing education per center anniversary year from LDE-approved trainers (LAC 28:CLXI.1721).
Where the approval lands differs: Louisiana's attaches to the trainer, Wyoming's covers both the training and its trainers, and Montana's attaches to the training itself.
Wyoming STARS approves all training and trainers for licensed child care providers.
Montana's annual training must be approved through the Practitioner Registry.
Louisiana's continuing-education hours must come from trainers approved by the Louisiana Department of Education.
That is the job in one sentence: deliver training that counts.
The rules even shape delivery.
Wyoming allows no more than 50 percent of training credits to come from videos, books or pre-recorded materials unless other options are unavailable.
Trainer work sits next to coaching but is not the same job.
A trainer teaches a group for a session; a coach works with teachers through observation, modeling and feedback — the components Head Start's coaching rule names for intensive coaching (45 CFR 1302.92(c)).
If you want the classroom-side version of adult development work, the ece coach overview covers what coaches do and where they are hired.
How to get approved as a trainer
Trainer approval is issued state by state.
In the states we researched it runs through a workforce registry, a training system or a state agency (Louisiana's trainers are approved by the Louisiana Department of Education), alongside the child care licensing agency that owns the training-hour rules.
The systems differ, so anchor the process to your state.
These are the named examples from our research:
- Georgia. The Georgia Professional Development System (GaPDS), run by DECAL (Bright from the Start), is where early learning professionals apply to become an Approved Trainer. Approved Trainers advertise trainings, manage rosters and renew their trainer designation through GaPDS.
- Kentucky. The Division of Child Care accepts training registration applications only through the ECE-TRIS training manager, and lists approved trainers holding the Kentucky early care and education trainer's credential through ECE-TRIS.
- Wyoming. Wyoming STARS (Statewide Training and Resource System), the state's early childhood registry funded by the Department of Family Services and administered by Align, approves all training and trainers for licensed child care providers and records completed training credits.
- Texas. The Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System (TECPDS), the state's workforce registry, houses the Texas Trainer Registry.
- Montana. Annual training must be approved through the Practitioner Registry — the registry Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services licensing rules point to.
New Mexico's training rule appeared in our research to send required training hours to trainers listed on a state trainer registry, but the trainer-registry wording could not be confirmed when the rule was re-read.
Treat it as unconfirmed and check with the state before relying on it.
Find your state's system
Start from your state child care licensing agency's professional development page and follow it to the registry or training system that approves trainers.Read the current approval criteria
Criteria are set by each system, so read them where you will apply rather than assuming another state's list transfers. Match them against your CDA, degree and classroom years before you apply.Apply and keep the designation current
Expect an application and a designation you have to maintain — GaPDS Approved Trainers renew theirs through the system, for example.List your trainings and track completions
Where the system supports it, advertise sessions, manage rosters and let the registry record the hours staff complete. That record is what makes your training count for the people in the room.
Rules change — confirm with your state
Pay and business model
Our research found no published wage line for childcare trainers.
The nearest published category is Instructional Coordinators (SOC 25-9031): in the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, that category showed a national median of $77,440 across 227,760 jobs — a figure dominated by K-12 employers — while the median in Child Care Services was $53,980 across 6,700 jobs.
Read both numbers as a proxy for the occupation family, not as trainer pay.
The business model follows the approval system.
GaPDS is where Georgia Approved Trainers advertise trainings and manage rosters, and where professionals search for and register for approved trainings — the registry-mediated shape of the work.
Kentucky's approved trainers are listed through ECE-TRIS instead, attached to the state's early care and education trainer's credential.
What the work pays per session — and how it splits between staff trainers and independent trainers — was not verified in our research: no published rate data for childcare trainers came up in the states we read.
Ask the registry, or the agencies and centers that buy training in your state, what approved trainers actually charge.
Titles worth searching include childcare trainer, early childhood trainer, trainer, professional development specialist and training coordinator — and watch the state systems named above, which list approved trainers and approved trainings.
CDA Professional Development Specialist
The CDA route is the credentialing side of trainer work.
The Child Development Associate (CDA) credential is awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition, with initial assessment applications filed online through the Council's YourCouncil system.
In the CDA world, the trainer-flavored title is Professional Development (PD) Specialist — the role the Council approves to assess candidates.
CDA candidates prepare a Professional Portfolio within 6 months of applying and complete a Verification Visit by a CDA Professional Development Specialist, who observes them working with children.
On the visit the PD Specialist follows the Council's R.O.R. (Review, Observe, Reflect) model: the specialist reviews the portfolio and Family Questionnaires, observes the candidate working with children, and reflects with the candidate.
Since February 2, 2026, the Council no longer requires a verification visit for candidates who demonstrate a qualifying level of competence on the CDA exam — its Credentialing Decision Enhancement — so not every CDA now routes through a visit.
To become a CDA Professional Development Specialist you need a CDA, or an associate, bachelor's or advanced degree in early childhood education or child development — or a related major with at least 18 semester or 24 quarter hours of ECE coursework — plus experience: 6 years with a CDA, 4 years with an associate degree, 2 years with a bachelor's, or 1 year with an advanced degree, along with a year of facilitating another adult's growth.
Approved applicants complete the Council's online training and a short online exam, then sign a contract and submit a W-9; the Council allows up to 45 business days to review applications.
The Council sets the pay model: PD Specialists receive a $100 honorarium per candidate and may not charge candidates any fees.
That makes the PD Specialist designation a per-candidate stipend attached to credential assessment, not the training business itself.
Trainer approval and PD Specialist designation are separate doors, too — one comes from the state's own system, the other from the Council — with different applications and criteria behind each.
This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. Trainer-approval and training-hour rules are set and administered by each state's child care licensing agency and its registry or training system, and CDA rules are set by the Council for Professional Recognition — confirm current requirements with the agency or body named before you apply.