Do childcare centers in your area pay staff for yearly education hours?

February 8, 2013 9:04 PM

In Washington State childcare workers/teachers have to take 10 hours a year of classes as "continuing education." Is there something similar in your state? Do quality centers in your area tend to pay their staff their hourly wage for the classes they attend? Thank you!
posted by Slimemonster to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Florida has a mandatory DCF training for anyone working in a childcare facility- if I'm remembering correctly, it's 40 hours to complete within a year of starting a job, then 10 every year after that. I've worked at a few different facilities and have never gotten paid for any of those credits, nor do I know of anyone that has.
posted by kro at 9:30 PM on February 8, 2013

In Hamilton, ON you need 20 hours for "Raising the Bar", a type of quality control for child care centres. It depends on the individual centre to decide if it is mandatory for their staff. The centre I work at now does not pay hourly wage nor pay for the actual training. Last centre I worked at paid the hourly wage while you were at the training plus paid for the actual training. Some pay for the cost of the training but not your hourly wage while you are there.

In my area the centres that pay at least for the cost of training usually overlap are usually the quality child care centres.
posted by Lay Off The Books at 10:22 PM on February 8, 2013

According to this 2008 study published by the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA), the licensing rules in 48 states required teachers in child care centers to complete ongoing training each year - ranging from from just 3 hours to a full 30 hours; 37 states specified the content of required training. 23 states have rules requiring ongoing training for assistant teachers, and only 13 states require it for aides. Jump to page 54 in the 2008 study for more details.

While the licensing rules wouldn't mandate centers to pay staff their hourly wages for attending training, I imagine that most reputable centers would pay (sorry, no stats to back that up, just my opinion).
posted by kbar1 at 11:06 PM on February 8, 2013

Yes, the childcare attended by my daughter in London UK does. They have four pupil-free inset days per year, with training paid for by the centre and for which the staff are paid.
posted by goo at 1:46 AM on February 9, 2013

When I worked in school-age child care in Maryland, we did get paid for training, which included CPR and First Aid certification paid for by the company.
posted by epj at 10:40 AM on February 9, 2013

As an SLP, we are required to accumulate 30 hours over three years of CEUs. Some jobs will pay for some of them; the school district I worked for provided trainings and paid for us to go to them, and the hospital I worked for didn't.

And this is a national requirement, I'm not certain on state-level requirements (being in graduate school means I haven't thought about CEUs in a while).
posted by absquatulate at 6:32 PM on February 9, 2013