Pennsylvania

The trainings in this category accepted by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services towards the annual clock hours of child care training required for those who work in child care centers, group child care homes and family child care homes. To verify approval please go to http://www.pakeysregistry.org/ets/pages/?p=national_organization_online_courses

What is the Pennsylvania Key?

The Pennsylvania Key was developed to improve the quality of services and programs that are intended for young children and their families. The Pennsylvania Key is a partner of the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning. The Pennsylvania Key includes a practitioner registry, The Pennsylvania Keys to Quality Professional Development Registry. This registry allows childcare providers in the state of Pennsylvania to increase the number of high-quality early childhood education programs and services, track professional progress, and develop a skilled early childhood workforce.

After applying to be part of the Pennsylvania Keys to Quality Professional Development Registry, participants will be able to create, manage, and develop a professional development plan. Creating this plan will help participants recognize experience, training, and educational accomplishments. The Pennsylvania Keys to Quality Professional Development Registry provides a number of sources for participants to develop and gain more skills.

The Pennsylvania Keys to Quality Professional Development Registry provides a wide variety of childcare trainings that can help develop more skills and teach new strategies to members of the early childhood workforce in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Keys to Quality Professional Development 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 on the Pennsylvania Keys to Quality Professional Development Registry

Pennsylvania Childcare Training Tools

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

The ‘Statewide Training Calendar’ tab in the Pennsylvania Keys to Quality Professional Development Registry allows users to search for trainings and trainers. Users can look through the training calendar or the course catalog to find trainings interesting to them. Users can also search by location, date, event ID, or subject if they know a specific area that they are interested in. If a user is interested in a particular trainer, they can search using the Trainer Directory. Users can narrow the search by selecting expertise areas, language, competencies, and so much more.

Saved Events allows users to find events they are interested in and save them in a specific area. If you walk away from the computer, see one that’s interesting but do not need hours currently, or want to keep looking, the Saved Events tool can become very handy.

How many continuing professional development hours are required for childcare educators in Pennsylvania?

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Continuing Professional Education Requirements, educators must complete six (6) hours of PDE approved continuing professional development hours annually.