CDA/CDAE Renewal Information

National CDA Renewal Requirements

• Hold a current Red Cross or other agency first aid certificate;
• Have at least 80 hours of recent work experience (within the past year) with young children; 
• Know an Early Childhood Education Professional who can complete a letter of recommendation regarding your competence with young children;
• Hold membership (within the current year) in a national or local early childhood professional organization; and
• Have completed either:
  
  • One three-hour college-credit course in early childhood education or child development (Contact the Early Childhood Education Department for qualified renewal courses.); or
  • 4.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) in early childhood education (the equivalent of 45 contact hours).

National CDA credentials must be renewed in three years from date of issue. After the first three-year renewal, renewal is required every five years.

Note: The renewal fee is $50.

Recommended Renewal Courses for National CDA or CDAE

• ARE2002 - Art and Creative Expression
• CHD2330 - Heads Up! Reading
• EEC1000 - Child Growth and Development
• EEC2200 - Educational Practices in ECE
• EEC2401 - Families and Communities
• MUE2010 - Music and Movement
• EEC2930 - Selected Studies in Early Childhood Education

Please verify with the Early Childhood Education Department which college-credit courses may be applied toward your National CDA renewal. Vocational courses may not be applied toward renewal.

National CDA Renewal Packet Address Information

Note: Please specify preschool, infant-toddler or family childcare.

CDAE Renewal

Effective September 2004, childcare licensing standards were revised to provide a renewal procedure for teachers with a CDAE (Florida CDA Equivalency). Click here for a renewal application.

Effective January 2005, each applicant will be asked to send in a CDAE Renewal application plus copies of all required supporting documentation to the Department of Children and Families in Tallahassee. DCF will review all applications and supporting documentation necessary to issue a CDAE Renewal certification. Applicants should allow two to four weeks for processing.

Florida Department of Children and Families - Childcare Services Program
Credential Unit, CDAE Renewal
1317 Winewood Blvd., Bldg. 6, Third Floor
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0700

Did you know?

Heads Up! Reading is offered at SCC as a vocational and credit level course. It also meets the new five-hour literacy requirement.