The Certification Course and all official written documentation and correspondence for CPS certification are in English. 

In order to become a nationally certified child passenger safety (CPS) technician, you must be 18 or older and pass a CPS Certification Course. Students pass the course if they:

  • attend every part of the course and
  • earn passing grades for three sets of tests:
    • written quizzes;
    • hands-on skills assessments, including a checkup event.

Before registering for the course, please be confident that you can meet all the course requirements:

  • Attend every part of the course. The CPS Certification Course is usually three to four days long and combines classroom instruction, indoor and outdoor hands-on activities, skills assessments with car seats and vehicles, and a community safety seat checkup event. You will receive a copy of the technician guide and will be expected to read it as part of the course instruction. All course materials, including the workbook, are included in your registration fee. You can get a head start on the course by checking out the technician guide.

If you have special needs or requests, we want to work with you. Talk with the course Lead Instructor about what we can do to help make sure your CPS certification experience is a good one. 

  • Written quizzes. Your instructor will test you with three written, open-book quizzes. “Open-book” means that you are encouraged to use your CPS technician guide while you are taking the quiz. To pass the combined quizzes, you must answer at least 42 out 50 questions correctly, which means a passing score of 84 percent or better.
  • Hands-on skills assessments. Instructors will test your skills with four hands-on skills assessments, and will award a grade of either pass or fail following each assessment. If you fail any of the four assessments, you will be notified during the course and may continue attending the class as an observer, but only at the discretion of the lead instructor.
  • Checkup event. The checkup event is the fourth hands-on skills assessment. To pass the checkup event, you must successfully demonstrate:
    • skills learned during class;
    • the ability to follow event procedures and instructions;
    • proper use and installation of child restraints and safety belts; and
    • the ability to teach parents and caregivers how to properly protect their family on the road.

The lead instructor will enter all your grades online at the end of the course. You can see your grades by logging on to your CPS online profile. Safe Kids will mail official notification letters directly to newly certified technicians within 20 business days after the lead instructor finalizes the course. Notifications of failure to qualify for certification will also be sent at that time.

When You Pass the Course

Successful completion of this course certifies you as a U.S. CPS technician for two years. Newly certified technicians are encouraged to log into their CPS online profiles and print a wallet card/certificate.

If You Don’t Pass the Course

If you received a failing grade for any part of the CPS Certification Course, you did not pass the course. Please don’t be discouraged. Many students do much better the second time they take the course and some of our best technicians went through the course more than once before passing.

If you want to try again, please register for another course and pay the course fees. Safe Kids is not able to provide a refund to a candidate who does not pass the course, as all applications and course materials will have already been processed and delivered.

If you take the CPS Certification Course more than once, please use your existing online profile and register for a new course using your current username and password. Please do not create a duplicate online profile.

 

The Certification Course

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