Assistant and Substitute Caregivers at Home-Based Childcare Facilities  

At licensed or registered homes, the primary caregiver may enlist the help of assistant caregivers, who do not contribute to the child to caregiver ratio, or substitute caregivers, who do. The requirements for these types of caregivers are as follows:  

Assistant Caregivers at Licensed or Registered Homes  

To become an assistant caregiver in a home-based operation, you must meet the following requirements:  

• Be at least 18 years old 

• Have a high school diploma or equivalent 

• Complete orientation in the home childcare operation 

• Pass background checks  

• Have a medical report showing freedom from contagious TB 

• A notarized and signed Affidavit for Applicants of Employment  

Substitute Caregivers at Licensed or Registered Homes 

Substitute caregivers contribute to the child-to-caregiver ratio. To qualify for this position in a childcare home, you must fulfill the following:  

• Meets all requirements of assistant caregivers  

• Have current training in pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid

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Training and Continuing Education for Licensed and Registered Homes  

Assistant, substitute, and primary caregivers at licensed and registered homes have training requirements before they care for children and continuing education mandates throughout the year.  

Training Schedule for Caregivers at Licensed and Registered Homes  

Caregivers at home-based childcare operations must meet the following training requirements based on their role and type of home they work at. 

All Caregivers at Home-Based Childcare Businesses  

The following are common requirements for all home-based caregivers, including assistant, substitute, and primary caregivers.  

• Orientation within seven days of hiring and completed before caring for children  

• Pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR 

• Primary caregivers must have these trainings before getting their home license or registration  

• Substitute caregivers must have these training before they can be part of the child-to-caregiver ratio  

• Assistant caregivers must have these trainings within the first 90 days of employment  

• Everyone with pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR training must repeat the training as needed to stay current with certification.  

Registered Home Substitute and Assistant Caregivers  

Those who serve as substitute or assistant caregivers at registered childcare homes must have at least 15 clock hours of training within the first year of working at the home. They must also have 15 clock hours of training every 12 months thereafter.  

Licensed Home Substitute and Assistant Caregivers  

Those who work as assistant or substitute caregivers in licensed homes must have 24 clock hours of training within the first year of employment. They must repeat 24 clock hours of training every 12 months.  

Primary Caregiver for Registered or Licensed Homes  

The primary caregiver at registered or licensed homes must have a minimum of 30 clock hours of training within the first 12 months and every 12 months after.  

Any Caregivers at Home-Based Childcare Operations Who Transport Children Under Nine  

When transporting children under nine chronological years or developmental age, transportation training is a requirement. Before transporting children, caregivers must have two clock hours of training in safely transporting children. This training must be repeated every 12 months.

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Orientation  

All home-based caregivers in childcare homes need to go through orientation before starting care of children. This orientation must include the following elements:  

• Minimum standards overview for your type of home-based childcare operation  

• Information on your general policies, including how to release children and how to discipline them 

• Basic overview of recognizing and reporting child maltreatment, abuse, and neglect  

• Your home’s emergency preparedness plan  

• Locations and use of first aid kits and fire extinguishers in your home 

• Understanding safe sleep practices and preventing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 

• Information on childhood brain development stages and early child development stages  

• Preventing the spread of communicable diseases  

• Giving children medicine  

• Preventing the incidence of and responding to food allergy emergencies  

• Building safety procedures  

• How to store and safely handle hazardous materials  

• How to safely transport children under nine years of age or development

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Annual Training for Caregivers at Home-Based Childcare Facilities  

Each year, assistant and substitute caregivers at licensed or registered homes need training that covers the following:  

• All annual training must be related to the age of the children under the caregiver’s care. 

• At least six clock hours of training must cover one or more of the following topics:  

• Age-appropriate curriculum  

• Interactions between children and teachers  

• Child growth and development 

• Discipline and guidance 

• One hour of understanding shaken baby syndrome, safe sleep, preventing SIDS, and early child brain development if you have any children under 24 months  

• Any number of hours on all of the following topics:  

• Emergency preparedness  

• Administering medication  

• Preventing the spread of communicable diseases 

• Handling and storing of hazardous materials  

• Site safety  

• Responding to food allergy emergencies and preventing them  

• Use the balance of the training hours to cover one or more of the following topics:  

• Safety 

• Risk management  

• Care of children with special needs  

• Child health  

• Minimum standards and how they apply to your home-based childcare  

• Observation and assessment  

• Cultural diversity in families and children  

• Spotting illness in children and caring for ill children  

• Planning and learning activities that match the developmental level of the children  

• Attachment and responsive caregiving  

• Topics on the ages of the children under care in the home  

• Three hours of training for registered home caregivers (6 hours for licensed home caregivers) must come from instructor-led training  

• Orientation, pediatric first aid, pediatric CPR, and transportation training do not count toward the annual training hours

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Annual Training Requirements for Primary Caregivers at Registered and Licensed Childcare Homes  

Primary caregivers serve as the license or registration hold for their childcare homes. They must have the following topics included in their 30 clock hours of annual training: 

• At least six clock hours of training must include one or more of the following topics:  

• Child growth and development  

• Curriculum that is age-appropriate to the children under your care  

• Guidance and discipline of children  

• Interactions between children and teachers  

• If your home has children 24 months or younger, you must have one hour of training must cover safe sleep practices, information about preventing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), recognizing shaken baby syndrome, and understanding early child brain development.   

• The following training topics do not have minimum hourly requirements, but you must include all of them in your annual training:  

• Emergency preparedness  

• Safety inside your home  

• Giving medicine to children  

• Preventing the spread of communicable diseases  

• Handling and storing hazardous materials  

• Preventing food allergy emergencies and responding to them  

• Management techniques, staff supervision, and leadership training  

• You must have at least six hours of the above managerial training topics if you have fewer than five years of experience as a primary caregiver in a registered or licensed home  

• You need at least three hours of the above training topics if you have worked as a primary caregiver in a licensed or registered home for five years or longer   

• Use the balance of your 30 annual training hours for any of the following topics:  

• Safety  

• Care of children with special needs  

• Child health  

• Risk management  

• Topics concerning the ages of children under your home’s care  

• Observation and assessment  

• Attachment and responsive caregiving  

• How to plan learning activities that align with the developmental age of children under your care  

• Identifying children who are ill and treating them  

• Cultural diversity in families and children  

• Minimum standards for your type of home-based childcare operation and how they apply to you 

• Training for pediatric CPR, pediatric first aid, transportation, and pre-application courses for licensing or registration do not count toward the 30 annual clock hours of required training  

• Training other people does not contribute to your total clock hours of training  

• At least six clock hours of training must come from instructor-led courses 

Transportation Training  

Before driving a vehicle or riding in one with children who have developmental ages of nine or lower, home-based caregivers  must complete two hours of transportation safety training.  

This training cannot count toward any other hours of professional training. As with other types of professional training, those who must have transportation safety training must repeat the training once a year. 

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Assess Your Work    

Track Career Pathway Progression  

The training and education hours you and your workers accrue should contribute to a goal. In TECPDS, the Workforce Registry includes access to the Early Childhood Education Professional Career Pathways. After you’ve uploaded your education and training information into the system, you can view where you stand on the career pathway of your choice in the childcare industry.  

With the Find My Career Pathway Tool, there are four main pathways:  

• Administrator (New for 2024): The administrator pathway ensures that participants are compliant with state licensing requirements to be administrative personnel, center directors, or administrative leaders of multiple childcare sites.  

• Coach: The coach path sets you up to become a mentor or for other early childhood education teachers, directors, and assistants. Coaches on this path can move forward as they gain more experience, competencies, and education. Coaches are part of a group TECPDS classifies as early childhood education specialists.  

• Practitioner: This path sets you up for having the education and experience requirements to be a classroom teacher, paraprofessional, or assistant teacher directly caring for children between 0 and 8.  

• Trainer: Trainers of other early childcare professionals may follow the trainer pathway. This path helps them to find ways to further their advancement in their expertise area. TECPDS classifies trainers as early childhood education specialists.  

Since TECPDS tracks education and experience you upload into the system, it can verify your position on your chosen pathway. The system will display your verified path location and your self-reported career path place. This information helps you to see how far you’ve come along and what you need to do to achieve your career goals in early childhood education.  

This tool is essential for keeping you on track toward meeting your education goals. 

Alignment with Core Competencies  

Another way of tracking whether you are meeting the requirements for your position of caregiver or director is checking with the Texas Core Competencies for Early Childhood Practitioners and Administrators. While these core competencies mainly apply to center-based administrators and caregivers, home-based providers can also use them as a set of guidelines to aim for.  

Use the core competencies as a checklist for yourself or your employees to identify areas of proficiency and things that need improvement. Once you’ve spotted areas that need improvement, you can more effectively choose professional development or helping your employees to find the right PD. 

Combine the core competencies reference with the self-assessment for administrators form from TECPDS or the self-assessment for practitioners form to make the process of checking your proficiencies easier.