Arizona requires licensed childcare staff to complete annual continuing education, with hours depending on provider type. As of the August 2025 rule update, ADHS‑licensed centers require 24 hours per year (up from 18); group homes and DES‑certified family child care require 12 hours per year; DES‑contracted centers require 18 hours per year. Families training counts toward these hours — family engagement, cultural competence, and community partnerships are recognized qualifying categories. brightwheel Professional Development is accepted in Arizona across all three tracks and offers IACET‑accredited Families courses that staff can complete on demand, with all completions tracked automatically in brightwheel. brightwheel courses auto‑post completed hours directly to the AZECWR Registry.
| Total CE hours | 24 hours per year |
| Cadence | Every 12 months from hire‑date anniversary, in at least 2 subject areas |
| Families maps to | family engagement, cultural competence, and community partnerships |
| Regulatory authority | Arizona DHS (ADHS) Bureau of Child Care Licensing |
| brightwheel approved | ✓ Yes |
| Auto‑posts to AZECWR | ✓ Yes |
| Total CE hours | 12 hours per year |
| Cadence | Every 12 months, health & safety training |
| Families maps to | family engagement, cultural competence, and community partnerships |
| Regulatory authority | ADHS‑licensed group homes / DES‑certified family child care |
| brightwheel approved | ✓ Yes |
| Auto‑posts to AZECWR | ✓ Yes |
| Total CE hours | 18 hours per year (per DES contract text) |
| Cadence | Every 12 months, in at least 2 health & safety subject areas |
| Families maps to | family engagement, cultural competence, and community partnerships |
| Regulatory authority | Arizona DES (Department of Economic Security) |
| brightwheel approved | ✓ Yes |
| Auto‑posts to AZECWR | ✓ Yes |
A center that is both ADHS‑licensed and DES‑contracted must meet both requirements at once. Since ADHS’s 24‑hour requirement is higher, it is the effective floor for those centers — DES’s contract language (18 hours) has not yet been updated to reflect the August 2025 ADHS increase.
| Families courses in Arizona | View brightwheel courses |
About Families (CDA IV)
Families — CDA Competency Area IV — covers the knowledge and skills educators need to build positive, respectful, and collaborative relationships with the families they serve, honoring diversity in culture, language, and family structure.
Family engagement is one of the strongest predictors of children’s school readiness and long‑term outcomes. Early childhood educators who build genuine partnerships with families bridge the home‑school divide and give children a foundation of consistency and trust that extends well beyond the classroom.
Arizona Families training requirements
Arizona childcare training requirements depend on provider type — 24 hours per year for ADHS‑licensed centers (increased from 18, effective August 2025), 12 hours per year for group homes and family child care, or 18 hours per year for DES‑contracted centers. Families training counts toward these hours — family engagement, cultural competence, and community partnerships are recognized qualifying CE topics. brightwheel Professional Development is accepted in Arizona across all three tracks and offers IACET‑accredited courses aligned with the Families competency area.
Staff complete brightwheel’s Families courses on demand — each course is 1 hour, self‑paced, and includes an assessment with a certificate of completion. All completions are recorded automatically in the brightwheel administrator dashboard, making compliance documentation straightforward for Arizona licensing audits.
What Families training covers
brightwheel’s Families courses cover the knowledge and skills early childhood educators need to support children in this competency area. Topics include:
Quality First and Families
Quality First is Arizona’s Quality Rating and Improvement System. Staff professional development in CDA‑aligned competency areas is a core component of Quality First quality ratings — programs that demonstrate ongoing staff training earn higher ratings. brightwheel’s IACET‑accredited courses align with the professional development requirements recognized by Quality First, and the automatic tracking dashboard makes it straightforward to demonstrate staff training during program quality evaluations.
Quality First →How brightwheel connects to the AZECWR Registry
Frequently asked questions
Other competency areas available in Arizona
Meet Arizona Families training requirements with brightwheel
Brightwheel offers IACET‑accredited Families courses accepted in Arizona — with automatic tracking and AZECWR Registry auto‑posting built in.
View full course roster
Accreditation: Brightwheel is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.