Bright from the Start Rules and Regulations: The Staff Training Rules, Explained

Short answer: Georgia's Bright from the Start (DECAL) rules require every supervisory and caregiver staff member in a licensed Child Care Learning Center to complete 10 clock hours of approved training each calendar year after their first year, including at least 2 hours of language and literacy, at least 2 hours of child development or health and safety, and no more than 2 hours of business topics. New hires owe a 10-hour Health and Safety Orientation within 90 days and pediatric CPR and first aid within 45 days. The full rule is 591-1-1-.33 Staff Training, amended effective June 4, 2025.

Last reviewed: September 27, 2026, against the July 1, 2025 edition of the Child Care Learning Center rules and DECAL's Required Training FAQ (revised January 2026).

I've trained Georgia teachers for more than thirty years, and the same three misunderstandings come up every licensing season. Directors think they personally need 20 hours (they don't). Teachers assume their CPR card counts (it doesn't). And almost everyone is surprised that the training year is January to December, not hire date to hire date. This guide walks through the rule the way a licensing consultant reads it.

Key facts

• Who: all supervisory and caregiver personnel, except independent contractors, students-in-training and volunteers (591-1-1-.33(5)(a)).
• How much: 10 clock hours every calendar year after the first year of employment.
• Required mix: ≥2 h language and literacy · ≥2 h child development, health or safety · ≤2 h business topics (591-1-1-.33(5)(b)).
• New hires: Health and Safety Orientation (≥10 approved hours) within 90 days; pediatric CPR and first aid within 45 days (DECAL Training Requirements).
• Doesn't count: CPR and first aid; the initial center orientation; the same Health and Safety Orientation repeated within five years.
• Proof: personnel file and/or GaPDS, available to DECAL on inspection (591-1-1-.33(6)).

The rule, section by section

Bright from the Start is the operating name of the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL). Its rules for Child Care Learning Centers live in Chapter 591-1-1, and staff training is one rule: 591-1-1-.33. It has seven parts. Here is what each one asks of you.

(1) and (2): Initial center orientation

Before anyone is assigned to children, they get an orientation to your program: policies, the health and safety portions of the rules, their duties, abuse reporting, emergency plans, medication, safe sleep, hand washing, fire and water safety, and bloodborne pathogens. This applies to volunteers and contractors too.

No state-approved hours are awarded for it. It is a checklist you run in-house, and the signed verification goes in the personnel file. DECAL publishes a sample form under the Staff Forms section of its site.

(3): Health and Safety Orientation, 90 days

Every staff member with direct care responsibilities completes a state-approved Health and Safety Orientation of at least 10 hours within the first 90 days. DECAL's FAQ is explicit that it evaluates the deadline from the date of hire on the employment application.

The training must cover eleven topics: infectious disease and immunization, safe sleep, medication administration, food allergies, building and premises safety, shaken baby and abusive head trauma, emergency preparedness, hazardous materials, transporting children, recognizing and reporting abuse, and child development across all domains.

Two details directors miss:

• The hours count toward the first-year training requirement, so a new teacher who finishes the orientation is most of the way through year one.
• It does not transfer to a new employer unless it was taken in the previous 12 months, was approved for at least 10 credit hours, and shows on the employee's GaPDS account. Otherwise it has to be repeated at the new center.

DECAL offers this orientation free in GaPDS as three OLLI trainings (Child Development; Health and Nutrition; Safety and Emergency Preparedness), which together provide 15 hours of credit. You'll find them under Trainings → Find OLLI Trainings.

(4): Food and nutrition training

Within the first year, the director and the person mainly responsible for food preparation complete 4 clock hours in nutrition planning, preparation, serving, dishwashing and food storage. Small, easy to forget, and checked at the licensing study.

(5): Annual training, the part everyone asks about

After the first year, every supervisory and caregiver staff member attends 10 clock hours of diverse training every calendar year, offered by an accredited college, university, vocational program, or another Department-approved source.

Since the June 2025 amendment the 10 hours have a required shape:

The literacy piece is new enough that many 2025 certificates won't carry the approval language. DECAL's FAQ says that for calendar year 2025 a language and literacy training taken before July 1, 2025 still counts if it was state-approved, delivered by a state-approved trainer, at least 2 credit hours, and verifiably about language and literacy. From 2026 onward, look for the statement "State-approved by Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning and meets the Early Language and Literacy Lab training requirement" on the certificate, or the Language and Literacy Lab icon in GaPDS.

(6): Documentation

Evidence of orientation and training goes in the personnel file and/or GaPDS, and must be available to DECAL for inspection. In practice, licensing consultants read the GaPDS transcript. A certificate that never made it onto GaPDS is a certificate you will be hunting for at 4 p.m. on visit day. Our GaPDS guide covers how hours get onto the record.

(7): Exemptions

Custodial and maintenance staff and volunteers who provide no direct care are exempt from both the Health and Safety Orientation and annual training.

The calendar problem: first year vs. every year after

DECAL's own indicator guidance draws the line clearly. First-year training runs from the hire date to the first anniversary. Annual training starts the January after that anniversary and is evaluated January through December, at the next year's licensing study. A teacher hired May 1, 2026 owes first-year hours by May 1, 2027, and then a full 10 hours in calendar year 2028, checked in 2029.

Certificates are valid only for the calendar year in which the training was completed, even if the paper shows a later expiration date. And a single training day maxes out at 6 hours of credit, whether it is a one-day workshop or a multi-day conference.

What counts as "Department-approved"

This is where good intentions go wrong. A training counts for licensing credit only if:

1. The trainer holds a DECAL trainer code (format TR-BFTS-###), or the organization holds an Approved Sponsor Organization code, and
2. The training itself holds its own code (TG-BFTS-###), or is part of an approved conference (C-BFTS-###).

Both codes should appear on the certificate along with the title, hours, date, location, and trainer signature. You can check any trainer or training at gapds.decal.ga.gov → Search Approved Trainings, or call Georgia Training Approval at 404-267-2760.

College coursework also counts. DECAL treats one accredited early childhood course as 10 state-approved hours, and one CEU as 10 hours, documented by an official transcript. General core classes (biology, algebra) don't count.

Directors: the 20-hour myth and the 40-hour course

The 10-hour annual rule applies to directors exactly as it applies to teachers. If someone told you Georgia directors need 20, they were thinking of South Carolina, where directors do owe 20 hours a year. Our state-by-state comparison lays the three states side by side.

What Georgia does have is a 40-hour director training course approved by the Department. In the current rules it appears as one of the qualification pathways for a center director: the 40-hour course plus five years employed as an on-site director (591-1-1-.31(b)2(vii)). Quality Rated also awards points when a director at Career Level 4 or higher has completed it. That's a credential question, not an annual-hours question, and I'll cover it in a separate director guide.

Recordkeeping for the licensing visit

What a consultant wants to see for each staff member, in this order:

• Signed initial orientation form (dated before first day with children).
• Health and Safety Orientation certificate, at least 10 hours, dated within 90 days of hire, verified on GaPDS.
• Current pediatric CPR and first aid cards (CPR renewed every 2 years, first aid every 3).
• For the director and cook: 4 hours of nutrition training in year one.
• For year two onward: 10 hours per calendar year, with the 2 literacy hours identifiable, all on GaPDS.

Clip first-year certificates together, then one bundle per calendar year. It sounds fussy. It saves an afternoon.

Where Camille's trainings fit

Every workshop I deliver is DECAL-approved and carries both codes, so the hours land on your team's GaPDS records without an individual training request. A typical group day covers 6 hours, which is the maximum a single training can earn, and the topics sit inside the rule's child-development and curriculum categories. Programs that want the full 10 in one plan, including the 2 literacy hours, usually take an annual pack. Single-topic sessions for your whole staff are on the group trainings page, and the Georgia specifics, including what counts and what doesn't, live on the Georgia certification page.

Sources

• Rules and Regulations for Child Care Learning Centers, Chapter 591-1-1, July 1, 2025 (Rule 591-1-1-.33 Staff Training; Rule 591-1-1-.31 Staff)
• DECAL Child Care Services: Training Requirements
• DECAL Required Training FAQ, revised January 2026
• DECAL Tip of the Month: Ongoing/Annual Training Requirements for Staff
• GaPDS Search Approved Training