Classes & Coursework

Important Update: Training Registration is Moving!
Starting May 14, 2025, all professional development trainings will be available for registration exclusively at www.yourcape.org.

Be sure to create your Cape account and complete your profile to access and register for trainings.

View the CCAEKS Class Calendar Click Here.

Child Care Aware^® of Eastern Kansas offers classes to assist you in meeting your licensing requirements and beyond. If you are new to the child care profession (staff or program), click here and select the "Starting a Child Care Business" tab. Required classes, additional information and helpful links can be found in this section.

Click on a title below for more information.

May 14, 2025 – We are excited to announce that Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas (CCAEKS) is officially joining Cape, a career and professional empowerment portal tailored for Kansas’ early childhood workforce. CCAEKS becomes the second organization to be part of this innovative platform, following the soft launch of Cape earlier this year.

Cape, available at YourCape.org, is a portal designed to simplify and streamline professional development for early childhood professionals. By joining Cape, CCAEKS will provide easy access to training, track career milestones, and manage professional growth through a unified platform that brings together resources across multiple systems.

What is Cape?

Launched in January 2025, Cape empowers early childhood professionals by centralizing training, career development, and achievement tracking in a single portal. The platform allows professionals to create profiles, access a wide variety of trainings, and connect with employers to document their experience.

Key features of Cape include:

Professional Profiles: Store personal and professional information, showcase achievements, and track career growth.
Training Catalog: Browse professional development trainings and filter by competencies, delivery types, and languages.
Connections: Create affiliations with employers and document work experience in the early childhood field.

Collaborative Development

Cape is a collaborative project developed by KCCTO, Child Care Aware of Kansas, and several state agencies, including the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, Kansas Department for Children and Families, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), and Kansas State Department of Education. Together, these organizations are working to provide Kansas' early childhood workforce with a unified platform that ensures efficiency, accessibility, and continued growth.

“We are proud to partner with CCAEKS and KCCTO to further empower our early childhood professionals in Kansas,” said Derik Flerlage, KDHE Bureau of Family Health Director. “Cape represents a significant step forward in recognizing and enhancing the work of our dedicated educators and caregivers.”

Join Cape Today

Visit YourCape.org today to create your account, complete your profile, and begin exploring the many professional development opportunities available. Stay tuned for more updates as Cape continues to grow and support the Kansas early childhood workforce.

Starting May 14, 2025, all professional development trainings will be available for registration exclusively at www.yourcape.org.

Please note that classes are tailored for specific audiences. Please reference the following audience key when selecting a class.

Approved Audience Key:

All (A)
Directors (D)
Family Child Care (F)
Infant (I)
Toddler (T)
Licensing Surveyor or Regulatory Staff (L)
Preschool (P)
School-Age (S)
Youth (Y)
Other (O)
Appropriate for Parents (*)

Registration for professional development events occurring on a weekday ends at noon the business day prior to the scheduled class' date. Registration for professional development events occurring on a Saturday ends at 8 a.m. the Friday before the class is scheduled.

Our online courses are instructor-led, but allow for flexible schedules and participation within the course time frame. We use discussion boards, videos, images, self-evaluation tools and action plans to make our online learning fun and a great way to connect with other early childhood professionals without having to leave your home or office! Our classes usually run one week and award 3 hours of in-service credit. If you are new to online learning, don’t worry – we will help! Below is a list of some of the online classes we offer:

The Journey to Independence: Applying Child Development in Daily Practice
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills Through Loose Materials
Beyond the Book Nook: Creating a Literacy Rich Environment
Growing Engineers: How to Teach Beginning Engineering Concepts Through Block Play
Lesson Planning Made Easy
The Artful Room – Supporting and Displaying Children’s Art

Child Care Aware^® of Kansas Online Learning

Child Care Aware^® of Kansas offers affordable, self-paced online classes that you can begin at any time and access 24/7. A variety of classes are available – from 2-hour classes to 45-hour modules to renew your CDA, or even 120-hour modules to complete your first CDA (Child Development Associate). Classes are also available in Spanish!

Child Care Aware® of Kansas – Call 855-750-3343 or Click here to explore the many professional development opportunities available on Cape.
Swim and Safety Instruction Institute (Northeast Kansas) – Instructor: Haley Prekopy. Click here to visit their Facebook page for more information and a place to request training and class registration. Contact through email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
CPR & First Aid by Tina (Northeast Kansas) – Call 785-221-3609 for a class schedule.
Connect Care (Douglas County) – Click here to visit their website and to view the class schedule.
CPR 4 You LLC (Douglas County) – Click here to visit their website and to view the class schedule.
DCCCA (Douglas & Shawnee Counties) – Call 785-841-4138 for a class schedule.
Tanisha Troutt (Southeast Kansas) – Call 620-875-9360 for a class schedule.
Cynthia Bradley & Pershaun Hendricks (Topeka & Surrounding within 1 hour) – Call 785-580-3846 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.
Lela Smith (Northeast Kansas) – Call 785-249-0677 for a class schedule. (CPR & First Aid instructor through EMS.)
LMH Health (Lawrence) – Call 785-505-5800 or visit lmh.org/wellness/events/ for more information and class schedule.
The B.E.S.T. Solutions - Kimberly Stewart (Northeast/North Central Kansas) – Call 785-363-0011 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Child Care Aware^® of Eastern Kansas does not endorse the above services.

The Core Competencies for Early Care and Education Professionals in Kansas detail what professionals who work with young children and families need to know and what they can do to provide quality early care and education. Click here to view a PDF of the latest edition of Kansas's Core Competencies for Early Care and Education Professionals.

Inside, you will find an introduction providing background information about Core Competencies and why they are essential. Following the introduction are the competencies themselves. They are divided into nine domain areas, colored coded in this document for easy use. Each of the nine areas contains four levels that range from the skills and knowledge an entry level professional needs to know, to the more advanced skills and knowledge possessed by someone with an advanced degree.

CDA
The Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential™ is the most widely recognized credential in early childhood education (ECE) and is a key stepping stone on the path to career advancement. There are many benefits of earning the CDA including:

Advance your career.
Meet job requirements.
Reinforce your commitment to early childhood education.
Provide parents with peace of mind.
Understand developmentally appropriate practice.
Increase your confidence.

For more information about the CDA, go to cdacouncil.org.

Accreditation
Accreditation is a stamp of quality that means a program meets nationally recognized guidelines for high-quality early care and education. Child care centers may be accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Family child care providers may be accredited through the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). School-age programs may be accredited through the Council of Accreditation (COA). For more information about the accreditation process, visit the links below:

Director Credential
The Kansas Early Childhood Director Credential, issued by the Kansas Association for the Education of Young Children (KSAEYC), provides directors with a pathway to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to be successful in the early learning industry. It also provides a system to recognize and document these achievements. For more information, click here.

College Coursework
View the Directory of Kansas Community Colleges Early Childhood Programs PDF for a list of colleges with early childhood programs. The directory contains each college’s contact information, program information, and more.