Ohio PROMISE Professional Early Childhood Inclusion Credential

With Ohio PROMISE, Ohio is on its way to ensuring that every Ohio family is healthy and supported when needed. Our children with disabilities  must be included with their friends, neighbors, and peers from birth so they can thrive wherever they live, play, and learn. The Professional Early Childhood Inclusion Credential (PECIC) was created to raise the level of awareness, knowledge, competency, and confidence of professionals attending to the needs of children with disabilities, their families,  and creating an inclusive environment for all children.

The importance of specialized training for a professionals’ ability to deliver quality instruction, equity in education, and academic and social success are all well established. By creating an easily accessible, free, and relevant professional development resource, Ohio can help those in the early care and education field learn about how to care for all our children and Ohio can increase access for families who want to know their child will be safe and cared for when away from their family.

This credential is important to your role as an early childhood professional because it advances your knowledge and skill development related to serving all young children and families.

Early care and education programs benefit because they have confident and competent staff members with specialized training that will be able to provide care and education safely and effectively to any child. Programs which can demonstrate their ability to provide high-quality care and education will be sought after in the community, may be eligible for financial and other incentives from national, state and local opportunities, and change the world for the better by expecting inclusion of children with disabilities as the norm.

Level 1 (Aware)

• A minimum of a High School Diploma is required to earn a Level 1 credential, unless you can document your enrollment in or graduation from a Career Technical Education course of study as a high school student
• There is no requirement to be working in a child care setting or early education program to earn a Level 1 credential

Level 2 and Level 3

Coming late 2023!

The Professional Early Childhood Inclusion Credential (PECIC) will be initially issued for 2 years. After that period of time,  a renewal of the credential can be earned and will be active for  3 years.

Professionals may only pursue one level of the Inclusion Credential at a time, beginning with the Aware level. Even if you are not required to work through Level 1 as a prerequisite, you must follow the directions to seek and be awarded the lower levels, beginning with 1, before moving to seek a higher level credential.  You do not, however, need to wait for your credential to expire to seek a high level of the credential.