How do I become a childcare provider/daycare teacher?

Question

I LOVE Children, and I want to work with them! It saddens me to hear all the horror stories about DayCare providers abusing children, especially when I know I am a good person who would never EVER hurt a child. I would be able to give them all the love and attention they deserve. I need to get out of the business I'm in now, and get into something that I can feel passionate about... I need to do something where I feel I am "bettering" the world.

I LOVE Children, and I want to work with them! It saddens me to hear all the horror stories about DayCare providers abusing children, especially when I know I am a good person who would never EVER hurt a child. I would be able to give them all the love and attention they deserve. I need to get out of the business I'm in now, and get into something that I can feel passionate about... I need to do something where I feel I am "bettering" the world.

I have years of experience working with children of all ages and needs. I would like to make a career out of it!

I have years of experience working with children of all ages and needs. I would like to make a career out of it!

Answer 1

The first step is to prepare a business plan. Even if you will not be applying for a bank loan, a business plan helps you to think through your business - what it needs, who it will benefit, how much it will cost, and what is its potential. Here are free business plans on childcare business that you may want to look into:

http://www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-30.doc
http://www.misbtdc.org/documents/BPWORKBK.pdf
http://www.misbtdc.org/documents/CDCPLAN.pdf
http://sbdcnet.utsa.edu/sbic/bplans.htm

Other articles you may want to read:

Starting a Child Day Care Business http://www.libsci.sc.edu/BOB/class/clis748/Studentwebguides/ss02/pollack2.htm
Childcare.net http://childcare.net/indexnew.shtml
How To Start Your Own Day Care Center http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol40/daycare.htm
Starting a child-care services business http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,290241,00.html
HOW TO START A QUALITY CHILD CARE BUSINESS http://www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-29.pdf

For in-depth information, I suggest checking out the following books:

- Start and Run a Profitable Home Day Care
- The Daycare Provider's Workbook
- Start Your Own At-Home Child Care Business
- So You Want to Open a Profitable Child Care Center :
Everything You Need to Know to Plan, Organize and Implement a Successful Program

It is also important that you learn the tax rules affecting daycare centers, especially if you are going to open one from your home. Here is the IRS page on child care centers: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/industries/content/0,,id=99878,00.html

As for the licenses and requirements in your state, the Administration for Children and Families provide a state by state listing of contacts for licensing and regulations governing child care businesses:
http://www.nccic.org/statedata/dirs/regoffic.html

In Connecticut, for example, you would need http://www.dph.state.ct.us/Licensure/apps/G_C_InitialAppReq.pdf
- child day care center initial application
- supplemental application
- lead testing (for pre 1979 buildings/houses)
- first aid course certification
- proof of worker's compensation form
- verification of experience for head teacher
- local health department approval
- fingerprints of staff
- many more

Answer 2

Most day cares require that you have at least 6 hours of early childhood education courses. You can find these at almost any community college and enroll in them to further your work progress. You could probably begin working at a daycare and talk to them about how to go about getting certified so that you can become a teacher in the classroom and not only an assistant. When I was teaching at a daycare if you didn't have the right amount of credits you couldn't be left alone with the children but that was about the only restriction. Another benefit of taking Early Childhood courses is that many places will give you more pay benefits if you have more education courses that apply to the job.

Try going or calling around to some of the local day cares in your area to find out general information about what they look for when they are hiring people. You can also contact you local community college if there are any in your area and see what sort of courses they offer, and if there is any other information that you can obtain from there.

Good Luck, it's a great profession to be in and is so rewarding!

Answer 3

There are a few ways of doing this.

1. Go straight to a daycare and apply. You will most likely be entry (level 1) position and will have to work your way up.

2. Go to school (college) and take Early Childhood Development. If you finish one year, you will be a level 2. If you finish the two year program, you will be a level 3 (highest position in a daycare).

3. Take a Teaching Assistant program, or Early Childhood, get some experience (volunteer at schools, in hospitals, etc.). Apply at a school to be a Teacher's Assistant working as an SNTA (special needs teaching assistant)

The best advice I can give you is to get out there and VOLUNTEER! Getting a job as a Teacher is tough where I live...very few jobs and lots of competition. I had the upper hand because of my experience. Plus, volunteering is SO rewarding!

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 4

First thing you will need to do is get your foot in the door. This may mean working as a teacher's assistant. They offer courses at the community colleges (2 yr). You will need to take child development courses to qualify for working in a center other than just a home setting. You will also have to have an updated CPR/First Aid class( this is mandatory) and fingerprinted. I suggest you find the places you would enjoy working and talk to the Director and see what you need to do to work at a place like this. That is what I did before getting into the childcare field. In order to work your way up you need to take more courses.

Answer 5

If you want to be a preschool teacher/daycare teacher you need just apply. A lot of places you can be an assistant teacher. If you want to be a lead teacher you will need to get a CDA or have a Bachelors degree. To get your CDA you have to take classes. A lot of centers will help you obtain it. I am a Preschool Teacher and what you say is nice, but you will need to be strong and able to handle all walks of life and the stress of caring for many different personalities all at the same time. You do not get to sit down, you have to be constantly be alert and ready for any situation. I hope you succeed!

Answer 6

Contact your' local Department of human services. They will be able to tell you all of the requirements and also help you start the process in being able to recieve payment from the state for children who recieve food stamps or daycare assistance.
Quality daycare providers are always in demand! Good luck to you!

Answer 7

Start by taking child development classes at a community college. This will give you the educational background that you will need to apply for jobs. Check with the requirements for employment in child care in your state.... some states only require as little as a high school diploma and 18 years of age to work with children (needless to say, they don't tend to have quality teachers and programs). Other states require employees to have at least 12 units of child development classes to apply. It just depends, so look on your state's department of education website to find out. The best thing you can do is educate yourself first, and just having experience playing with children in your own home is completely different than working in a classroom. Not to say that being with children in any supervisory way is not valid or good experience, just different. This field needs people who are passionate about working with children- too many people get into it because they think "watching" kids is easy. It is absolutely NOT an easy job. If you are doing all things that children need, it is overwhelming at times. I would recommend once you get the minimum requirements that you observe in classrooms to determine the specific age group you want to work with. Some people are great with the demands of infants/toddlers, while others enjoy the play skills of 4 year olds more. I would recommend observing in all different age groups to see what matches with your personality. You will probably have to do observations if you take classes... and that is a good thing. Many people get into this field thinking that they love children, so this should be a good fit... perhaps not. I work with children with special needs, and about half the applicants who apply at my center leave in the first two weeks because it is so demanding (we serve children with all levels of abilities). Obviously, the turnover is much higher at a center like mine, since working with children with disabilities is much more difficult than working with "typically developing" children. Turnover is also high at regular centers because the pay is so low. The average childcare worker in the US earns something like $6.50 an hour. That's below poverty. Without years of education behind you, you may not ever get above $8/hr. People find that they can make the same money or more doing something much easier than childcare. I don't want to discourage you from working on your goal... just give you some insight on the downside of childcare. You also want to really research different childcares before you get a job... there are plenty of variances in "quality" of care. Go to each center (a good ploy is taking a pre-school age child with you to evaluate the center for possible placement) and observe what you like and what you don't. I'd make a checklist... list the kinds of things you'd like a center to have, and then leave a little room to make notes to yourself. Really watch the interactions between the teacher and the kids... do all the teachers seem like they love what they do? Also, ask what kinds of things they have for the teachers... quality programs will have a teacher's lounge, staff meetings, and will pay for teachers to advance in their careers (pay for college classes, give bonuses for exceptional work). Hope all this helps!

Answer 8

The site below provides a lot of resources for this sort of thing. There are links for grants and how to start a daycare stuff. If you check on the middle of the page there is a link for individual states licensing regulations.

Answer 9

There are some places in the day care that will let you work while you take classes at night to show you how to get into working all the way.
Check around your town or your local college

Answer 10

A lot of university's offer an Associates degree in Early Childhood Education, it is a two years program.