Child Care Workers Can Earn Credential with this DCC Program

Orientation Planned for Tuesday, May 15

Release Date April 18, 2007

Poughkeepsie, N.Y. – Dutchess Community College offers a program for people currently working in the child care field who want to earn a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. The College is currently accepting enrollment for the 12-credit program which begins in the fall 2007 semester, and will hold an open house for prospective students on Tuesday, May 15 at 6 p.m. at the main campus in Poughkeepsie in the Taconic Hall Conference Room 209. For information on the program and open house, contact Early Childhood Education Field Supervisor Eileen Hall at 431-8346.

The Child Development Associate is a nationally-recognized credential given by the Council on Professional Recognition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the professional status of early childhood care providers. The credential is awarded for three child care settings: center-based, for which candidates receive endorsements to work with infants and toddlers or preschool children; family child care; and home visitor. There are more than 150,000 CDAs across the country in all 50 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands. In addition to providing the training hours needed for programs licensed or registered by the Office of Children and Family Services, a CDA also meets the regulatory requirements for a head of group in a day care center.

DCC’s CDA program includes a two-semester, Tuesday evening class geared for people already working in the child care field who would otherwise be unable to attend a traditional daytime study program. Students can use SUNY Educational Incentive Program monies towards tuition costs. The course provides the 120 hours of training required for the CDA, plus advisement and field supervision at students’ current early childhood programs or family day care worksites. The field supervision and advisement offered by DCC is an advantage over other programs which require students to find and pay for their own field advisement.

Students who successfully complete the two-semester course will be ready to apply to the Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition for their CDA. They also have 12 credits toward other DCC programs. For those students that continue their education at DCC, the College will waive three practicum requirements, making it possible to complete their degree or certificate with primarily evening courses.

DCC’s Early Childhood Education Associate of Applied Science degree prepares students to become a teacher (head of group) in a child care center or an assistant in a public school setting. The Early Childhood Caregiver Applied Academic Certificate, a one-year program, provides early childhood and academically-based skills to students working with, or seeking to work with, young children in day care centers or family day care settings. DCC also offers an Early Childhood Education Associate of Science in which students are jointly registered with SUNY New Paltz, where they finish their degrees to teach children from birth through grade two.

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