Can you hire a teacher without a CDA? Hiring while a credential is in progress

Your state's child care licensing agency sets what each classroom title requires in a center.

The credential your rule names for the lead-teacher title — the CDA, or a state staff credential if your state defines its own — is the one that matters for the hire, and the first check is the rule itself: what it requires for the title, and whether it lets a teacher who is enrolled in a credential program hold the title while finishing.

Three answers to take back from the rule before you offer the job: whether the credential is required outright for the lead title, whether an enrolled-and-working-toward-it status is accepted, and what evidence the agency expects you to keep.

Get those answers from your licensing agency, then write the job ad's requirements line to match the rule.

If your state names its own staff credential for lead teachers rather than the CDA, everything on this page works the same way — the credential your rule names is the credential to hire against.

Where the rule does not let a teacher without the credential hold the lead title, the same candidate can still work in an assistant role, which carries its own state requirements — confirm those with the agency too.

Our guide to hiring assistants covers that hire on its own, and our guide to hiring a childcare teacher covers the lead-hire screening steps.

The credential question is also separate from the background-check question.

A credential exception, where a state allows one, does not move the background check: the federal CCDF rules govern when a new hire may start (45 CFR 98.43), and the rule turns on the background check a staff member has, not on their qualifications.

The next section covers both clocks.

Start with what our research for this page did not surface: a national timeline for credential-in-progress hires.

The window — where a state allows the arrangement at all, and how long it can run — is set by that state's licensing rule and enforced by its child care licensing agency, and one state's window never transfers to another.

Ask your agency directly; the answer is what your staffing plan has to fit.

The timeline that is national is the background check's.

Under 45 CFR 98.43(d)(4), the federal CCDF rule, a new hire may begin work after a qualifying result on either the FBI fingerprint check or the in-state fingerprint check — and until every component clears, they must be supervised at all times by someone with a qualifying background check.

CCDF is the floor: states can be stricter, and some bar any work before full clearance.

Caring for Our Children Basics, the ACF standards document (July 2025), frames the same process: staff should be screened on employment and at least every 5 years, checks should be completed within 45 days, and staff may begin only after a qualifying FBI or in-state fingerprint result.

Our provisional-hire page covers the supervised start in detail.

Put your own window in writing — inside the rule, not beyond it. If the agency confirms a credential-in-progress arrangement is allowed, the offer letter and the personnel file should carry the completion deadline, the evidence of enrollment, and what happens if the deadline passes.

Write the deadline to match the rule or beat it, and confirm that line with your state child care licensing agency before you set a start date — a credential deadline is a licensing question before it is a paperwork one.

Two structured routes tie a working teacher's training to an employer: the T.E.A.C.H. scholarship model and registered apprenticeship.

T.E.A.C.H. pays most of the tuition, books and travel; apprenticeship carries the training on the job, on your payroll.

Both are built around the employer relationship, which is what makes them hiring tools and not just benefits.

T.E.A.C.H. runs on a cost-shared model: the scholarship pays most of tuition, books and travel; the model often requires paid release time from the sponsoring employer; the recipient earns a bonus or raise on completing credit hours; and the recipient commits to staying with the sponsoring program for a set period.

The directory kept by the national T.E.A.C.H. center (October 2026) listed T.E.A.C.H. programs in 21 states — AL, AR, CO, FL, IA, IN, ME, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NH, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, UT, VT and WI — with Tennessee listed for WAGE$ only.

Employer cost shares vary by state program and were not part of this research; the state program's own materials set them.

If your state is on the list, the state program is the place to start a T.E.A.C.H. sponsorship conversation.

Whether it funds CDA work is also set state by state: Missouri's T.E.A.C.H. program offers scholarship models for the CDA, Alabama's offers a CDA Assessment Fee scholarship, and Minnesota's can pay for college credits toward a CDA — check what your own state's program covers.

Registered apprenticeship is the second route, and it trains the teacher on your payroll.

Standards in 29 CFR 29.5 (U.S. Department of Labor) require a term measured by at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning, demonstrated competency, or a hybrid of the two; a recommended minimum of 144 hours of related instruction per year; and a progressively increasing wage schedule starting at no less than the FLSA minimum wage.

The standards also require a numeric ratio of apprentices to journeyworkers consistent with proper supervision, periodic performance review, and safe training facilities — how those roles map onto a center's staff, including which of your experienced teachers supervises the apprentice, is part of the program design you settle with your state apprenticeship agency.

Apprenticeship.gov lists "Early Childhood Educator" and "Early Childhood/PRE-K Teacher" among education-sector apprenticeship occupations (O*NET 25-2011.00).

Our research notes also point to a CDA apprenticeship pathway through the Council for Professional Recognition, the body that awards the CDA, but this research pass did not confirm it on a primary page.

State programs vary: Montana's CDA apprenticeship, for one, covers training expenses — the CDA book, verification visit and exam.

Before you build a program around a CDA apprenticeship, check with the Council and your state apprenticeship agency.

The sponsorship already carries the retention mechanics — decide them before you sponsor, not after.

Under the T.E.A.C.H. model, the recipient commits to staying with the sponsoring program for a set period, and the bonus or raise lands on completing credit hours, so the completion conversation about pay has happened before the teacher enrolls.

Treat the commitment period as your development window: a named mentor, classroom duties that stretch the teacher toward lead work, and a written plan that continues after the credential is done.

Our professional development plans guide covers that plan, and our staff retention guide covers the broader work of keeping teachers once they are trained.

Plan for what the credential changes, too.

Once the teacher holds the CDA, that credential is part of their qualifications — so the pay-and-duties plan you set at enrollment needs somewhere to go: a wage schedule that steps up on completion, and classroom duties that grow with the credential.

If a teacher does move on, it helps to know what they see: our childcare teacher jobs listings show what other centers post.

This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Credential requirements for lead teachers are set and enforced by your state child care licensing agency — confirm the current rules with your agency before you write a requirements line, set a deadline or sponsor a credential.