Considering Child Care as a career?
Caring for children can be one of the most rewarding professions ~ and one of the most challenging! The early care of children is their early education ~ so, before deciding to become and Early Childhood Educator, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I enjoy caring for children, other than my own?
• Is my personality such that I enjoy spending my time with children alone?
• Do I have enough patience and self-control to work with children?
• Am I friendly, warm, understanding and affectionate?
• Can I communicate well with parents and children?
• Can I accept the responsibility of children’s health and safety while in my care?
• Can I provide interesting, challenging and age appropriate activities for children?

When you are considering becoming an early childhood educator, you need to know what type of care you are interested in, as well as what age group you would like to work with. These are just some of the things you will need to think about, in deciding what type of early care and education setting you are interested in working in.

If the answer to the above questions with yes, then you need to gain the appropriate educational requirements.

The educational component of becoming eligible to teach in early childhood includes obtaining an Associate’s degree in Early Childhood Education, obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, or the minimum requirement requires that you take a series of entry level courses, which will qualify you to teach in an early childhood program, or open a program in your own home. These courses can be offered on site, via correspondence, or on line.

To become licensed, you will need to contact the Wisconsin Child Care Improvement Project (WCCIP), a statewide non-profit agency dedicated to helping improve child care by helping child care professionals give the best care possible to your children. Technical advisors throughout the state work with family child care programs and child care group centers assisting them with start-up and achieving national accreditation. This is done through a range of services including on-on-one consultations, targeted workshops, CDA advising, business planner consultations, and environment assessments. The staff of technical advisors, know about quality child care because they have helped create it themselves as center directors, classroom teachers, family child care providers and school age site supervisors. The contact information for the WCCIP follows:

Wisconsin Child Care Improvement Project
2109 S. Stoughton Road
Madison, WI 53716
Phone: 800-366-3556 • Fax: 608-224-6178


If you are interested in becoming a certified provider, you need to contact your county certifier. Those numbers are:

Green County (608) 328-9375
Rock County (608) 741-3644 or (608) 741-3437
Walworth County (608) 741-3426

Your local certifier will get you the information and application materials you will need to become certified.