Illinois

Courses in this category are approved by The Gateways to Opportunity Registry

What is Gateways to Opportunity?

The Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agency, better known as INCCRRA, is the home for all of Illinois childcare professional development and training needs. Along with many other statewide systems and services, INCCRRA provides the Gateways to Opportunity Registry. Having a membership on the Gateways to Opportunity Registry allows participants to track training and education online, and also meet Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS) licensing requirements.

The Gateways to Opportunity Registry offers professional development and quality improvement tools in one centralized website in order to support early childhood educators in Illinois. The Gateways to Opportunity Registry offers a wide variety of childcare training courses. The Gateways to Opportunity Registry manages all of your trainings and keep the records all in one place. The system allows you to locate training by a specific trainer or by specific keywords. AIR Child Care Training Solutions has multiple courses listed in The Gateways to Opportunity Registry.

Illinois Childcare Training Tools

While there are many great tools available to childcare professionals, here’s two that we’ve found to be very useful.

Create a Professional Development Plan in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry allows participants to create an Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP). This plan allows users to create, track, and monitor professional goals.

Search by Requirements  allows users to filter courses to find courses that meet specific requirements. These requirements that participants can filter for are: Gateways to Opportunity Registry-Verified, Approved for QRS, Gateways to Opportunity Registry Approved, Gateways Credential(s) Approved, and Approved for ExceleRate.

How many training hours are needed?

According to the Illinois Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plan FFY 2019-2021, all caregivers, teachers, and directors must meet a minimum number of annual training hours. These hours vary by facility type.