For most child care providers and their teams, continuing education is a part of their career. Most states have strict compliance requirements surrounding the credentialing and ongoing professional development (PD) for early childhood educators. Directors, teachers, and other staff members may have varying degrees of enrichment needed, but they can generally be satisfied via live or pre-recorded webinars and educational events hosted by a handful of organizations in the child care industry. 

These organizations may offer a different suite of courses, philosophies, pricing, topic areas. Thus, this article reviews the most prominent players in this space, distinguishing them by their strengths to help child care directors decide on the best professional development for their teams.

What to look for in ECE professional development courses

There are standalone ECE professional development brands and then there are those that are wrapped into the program of an all-in-one child care management software platform. Each organization may offer a different combination of features, benefits and content. The most common features to evaluate for among PD providers often include:

• Live versus pre-recorded sessions

• Scope of topics and speakers

  • Corpus size

  • Topic area focus

  • Teacher versus director track

• Accreditation and certification eligibility, including:

  • State PD hours (check availability for your specific state)

  • IACET accredited (widely recognized CEU credits often apply to state PD hours)

  • Child Development Associate (CDA) credentialing

  • Distance Education Accreditation Commission (DEAC) accredited

• Reputation / social proof

• Pricing

Determining which of these components matter most to you and your team will help you determine the best fit out of the following ECE professional development organizations.

1. Early Childhood Investigations (ECI)
   Best for: free courses

Early Childhood Investigations (ECI) is an established continuing education program hosting over 600 on-demand webinars, with live presentations added weekly. Over 3 million people in the child care industry have participated in ECI courses over the past 16 years. All courses are free and most states accept the certificates issued for Professional Development (PD) hours. ECI courses continue to be supported by producer Playground, though you do not have to be a Playground customer to participate and earn certificates for PD hours. Courses are available at both the teacher and director level.

2. Childcare Education Institute (CCEI)
   Best for: specialty approval

Childcare Education Institute has served over 60,000 users in the child care industry, with hundreds of topics available. While courses generally require payment to participate, a free trial is available if you want to test the waters first. CCEI offers a wide range of accreditation and specialty credentialing, including IACET and DEAC accreditation, Head Start training, and Child Development Associate (CDA) qualifying courses. You can even partner with CCEI to create your own ECE professional development courses.

3. NAEYC
   Best for: networking

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a professional membership organization offering a handful of member benefits to early childhood educators, including access to courses. You do have to pay to access these courses, but live and on-demand webinars can satisfy your professional development needs in most states thanks to NAEYC’s IACET-accredited status. NAEYC might be a good option if you are looking for other bundled perks, such as networking through the annual conference and discounts on industry benefits. Beware that NAEYC has issued warnings about fake advertisements claiming the organization offers free courses through the Department of Education, which is not true.

4. Impact Early Education
   Best for: interactive development personal to your operation

Impact Early Education may be the most interactive option of the best ECE professional development options. It offers CEUs for its live and pre-recorded webinars thanks to IACET accreditation. For those looking for more personalized development, live in-person speakers are available, as well as virtual behavior observation sessions. Currently no free training courses are available, but one can choose between purchasing individual courses or a paid all-access pass for a year. While not an all-in-one software management platform, the director dashboard allows for transparency regarding the team’s progress.

5. Procare PD
   Best for: Procare customers

Procare is a child care management software platform that also offers professional development courses to its customers. Over 120 hours of prerecorded webinars are available, with IACET accreditation and PD approval in all states. Applicable courses can also provide pathways to CDA certification. Procare will handle reporting your completed coursework to your state, unlike many other continuing education platforms. You do need to be a customer to access these courses, but then all your staff will be able to participate.

6. Lillio PD (formerly himama)
   Best for: monitoring your team’s progress

Lillio is another child care management platform that offers IACET-accredited professional development courses. However, not all states currently accept PD hours from Lillio PD, and you have to submit evidence of course completion to your state yourself. On the other hand, hours may be put toward CDA accreditation and renewal. As a director, you can manage your team’s development progress through the program. For those who are not current Lillio customers, a one week free trial is available, with per-user or enterprise plans available afterwards.

7. Brightwheel PD
   Best for: Brightwheel customers

Brightwheel offers a PD program for its customers, including both pre-recorded and live sessions. Your team can choose from 115+ courses, with 49 states approved in terms of professional development hours. However, certificate submission will only be done on your behalf in 22 states. Courses are also approved to count toward CDA certification or renewal. For non customers, some free courses are available.

8. Teaching Strategies
   Best for: CCDF participants

Professional development offerings from Teaching Strategies extend slightly beyond early childhood education development into first through third grade. The program is widely recognized, including IACET accreditation, Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) prerequisites and CDA certification. As a whole, the community includes over 80,000 childhood educators, with paid memberships available for teachers and experts on hand to help guide you through development.

Looking for more ways to leverage your staff and retain your top talent? Book a demo with Playground to see how it can save your team hours of administrative work per week while reducing errors.