Ready to transform your career and make a deeper impact? The Academy at NHSA’s new Birth to Five CDA Course prepares you for the Council’s new credential that gives you the flexibility to work across the full spectrum of early childhood—from birth through age five.

Review the general CDA course website and this article from The Council.

Course Information:

• Start Date: Launching Spring 2026
• Course Level: Beginner
• Requirements/Prerequisites: None. Anyone can take the course. The credential is valid for 3 years. To obtain the credential with The Council, you must have:
  • High school diploma/GED or be enrolled in a high school career and technical program.
  • Candidates must have at least 480 hours of experience working with children aged birth to five in the past three years. This experience should include at least 160 hours—as a paid employee or volunteer— in each sub-age group within a center-based setting. Sub-Age Groups: Infants (Birth-17 months) and Toddlers (18 months-36 months), and Preschoolers (3–5-year-olds) *Center directors will confirm in the application that candidates have 480 hours of experience, with at least 160 hours in each age group. The CDA candidate should have 100% of these hours completed by the time they apply for the CDA credential with the Council for Professional Recognition.
• Target Audience: Instruction and Effective Practice, Program Operations
• Course Meeting Times: Only CDA PRO and CORE include coaching sessions announced in the course.
• Completion Timeline/Duration: 4 months, with access to the course for 6 months

Topics:

The CDA Course modules are aligned with the CDA Competency Standards.

1. To establish and maintain a safe, healthy learning environment
2. To advance physical and intellectual competence
3. To support social and emotional development and to provide positive guidance
4. To establish positive and productive relationships with families
5. To ensure a well-run, purposeful program that is responsive to participants needs
6. To maintain a commitment to professionalism

Learning Objectives:

• Learn to work effectively with children and families by understanding and implementing the CDA competency standards in daily work with children in a classroom setting
• Gain a deeper understanding of child development principles and their effective implementation in each learning experience throughout the day
• Identify key elements of management and professionalism in early childhood

Skills This Demonstrates:

Teachers complete 120 hours of professional development across eight CDA subject areas, developing expertise in:

• Planning safe and healthy learning environments
• Advancing children’s physical and intellectual development
• Supporting social and emotional development
• Building productive relationships with families
• Managing effective programs
• Maintaining commitment to professionalism
• Observing and recording children’s behavior
• Understanding principles of child development and learning

Head Start Alignment:

Includes alignments with Head Start Program Performance Standards and the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework in each module. 

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Course Author

Zuly Vazquez

Zuly Vazquez is the senior manager of Early Head Start Professional Development. She has worked with Head Start and Early Head Start programs for over a decade, specializing in training, mentoring, coaching, facilitation, curriculum implementation, and management. She worked for several years in the classroom, providing high-quality education to children from different cultures, traditions, and ethnicities. She is a former Head Start parent and has vast experience supporting and providing technical assistance to teachers, family child care providers, education specialists, and families in large programs in Florida and Georgia. Over her career, she designed a supplemental Christian early childhood curriculum, bilingual online lessons, and classroom observation tools and has facilitated early childhood education courses in English and Spanish at the college level. As an active early childhood advocate, she is part of the advisory committee of her local NAEYC affiliate, the Family Child Care Home Alliance of Georgia, and Latinas United for the Children of America.