The Council For Professional Recognition

The Council for Professional Recognition is a nonpartisan organization that advances career pathways for early childhood educators through high-quality, competency-based credentialing. We envision a society where all children learn and thrive in environments led by competent, valued early childhood educators. The Council sets policies and procedures for assessment and administers the Child Development Associate® (CDA) National Credentialing Program. The CDA® program is designed to assess and credential early childhood education professionals. To date, over 1 million Child Development Associate (CDA) credentials have been issued around the world. In addition, the Council publishes the CDA Competency Standards books, Essentials for Working with Young Children textbook and other materials used for assessment, education and program development. Our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging is woven into everything we do for the ECE profession and our employees. We are thrilled to announce our recent recognition as the recipient of the Great Place to Work certification and Decision Wise 2023 Employee Engagement Top Performer award. These awards honor our steadfast dedication to the continual measurement and enhancement of employee engagement across our organization. For more information, visit