CPS Technician Certification
Course
Updated:
June 2005
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Safe Kids Worldwide is
the certifying body for the National Child Passenger Safety Certification Training Program and has established an online system for
registration and other certification processes. The online system
also gives each certified or formerly certified individual secure
access to a personal profile.
For information
on training class policies & procedures, registration, certification,
and recertification - as well as frequently asked questions and
answers - visit the Safe Kids Worldwide CPS Certification
web site at www.safekids.org/certification.
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What
Does the Course and Certification Involve?
CPS certification workshops are conducted and taught using a standardized
curriculum. The curriculum has been developed and updated through input
and feed back from national, state and local CPS advocacy programs, individual
CPS Technicians and Instructors, federal and state agencies, and child
restraint and vehicle manufacturers. The CPS Technician training course
provides instruction in crash dynamics, injury prevention strategies,
and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. The course, 32-hours minimum
and generally held over a four or five-day period, is taught through a
combination of lectures, discussions of new issues, role playing and hands-on
practice with a wide variety of child restraint and vehicle belt systems.
Students must be prepared for the substantial physical activity needed
to install safety seats.
Child passenger safety
(CPS) training workshops are designed to teach individuals the technical
and instructional skills to serve as child passenger safety resources
for their organization, community or state. Those who successfully complete
the workshop may apply to receive national certification as a Child Passenger
Safety Technician.
In order to be eligible
for certification, students must pass both written and hands-on skills
tests. An additional requirement for successful completion of the course
is active participation in a "real world" CPS checkup clinic
by all students. It is at these end-of-class clinics where the students
demonstrate their skills by demonstrating proper use and installations
of child restraints and safety belts to the public and then teaching these
skills to the parents.
Certified CPS Technicians
wishing to do so may become Certified Technician Instructors through a
process that includes being approved as an Instructor Candidate and participating
in another Standardized CPS Workshop as an Instructor Candidate under
the supervision of one or more Instructor Mentors. Refer to Instructor
Candidates for additional information about the Instructor certification
process.
Tens of thousands
of individuals have been certified as Child Passenger Safety Technicians
and Technician Instructors since the standardized curriculum and certification
program began in early 1998. CPS Technicians and Instructors put their
knowledge to work through a wide variety of programs and activities with
the goals of teaching parents and other care givers to properly protect
their children in motor vehicles and to provide "hands-on" assistance
in the proper use of child restraint systems and safety belts.
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