School Readiness Certification
We are excited that you are interested in Incredible Years® School Readiness Parent Group Leader Certification! Please browse through the information on this page and contact us with your questions. We are happy to assist you through this process.
Step 1: Send in your DVD for review (see #9) and certification fee along with the following forms: Application Form (#1), Brief letter summarizing the session/topic covered and population served, as well as ONE Self Evaluation that corresponds to the DVD session you are sending for review (this counts as one of the four total peer/self evaluations).
Step 2: Once your DVD review passes, you will be asked to send in the remaining paperwork – see notations below.
- Application form. (Send with Video.)
Certification Application - School Readiness - One-page letter discussing your interest in becoming certified, your goals, plans, and philosophy of effective parenting and your clinical experience. (Send after passing review.)
- Confidential background questionnaire about your professional experience. (Used to improve the quality of our trainings and materials.) (Send after passing review.)
Background Questionnaire for Parent Group Leaders - Two letters of reference. (Send after passing review.)
- Weekly and final evaluations by parents (see manual for forms) for four full groups – minimum of 4 sessions. (Send after passing review.)
- Attendance list for each of two groups (50% of parents must finish groups, min of 6). (Send after passing review.)
- Leader checklists for four full groups. 4+ sessions. (Send after passing review.)
- Submit a peer-evaluation and a self-evaluation for two groups (four total forms submitted). (Send one self evaluation with video, send remainder after passing review.)
Peer & Self Evaluation (Parent) (Editable form) - Certified mentor or trainer’s supervisory feedback review of your group session. This review can be done on site or, you may submit a video for video review. The review expects the following protocol to be met:
Parent Group Leader Collaborative Process Checklist
See Application Information for further information on preparing your video.
Note: Your video must demonstrate the points contained in the Group Leader Process Checklist. If it does not meet these requirements a second DVD must be submitted. USB thumb drive or regular size DVD only (NTSC or PAL format) – no Mini DVs. Contact us for information on sharing video files electronically.
There is a certification application fee of $800 which includes detailed DVD video review and supervisory report (up to two video reviews), registration process, and certificate of certification. Additional video review, if needed, is billed at the rate of $230 per hour. The certification application fee must be received for the DVD to be reviewed. If the supervisory report has been approved by a certified mentor (rather than an Incredible Years trainer) then the cost of certification is $185.
Send Application Materials and Certification Fee to:
Incredible Years, Inc.
Certification Committee
1411 8th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119 USA
Delivering groups in another language? Our trainers are now scheduling to deliver video reviews for certification live over Zoom! Group leaders can provide live translation of their videos with our trainers over Zoom. Trainers will schedule for up to an hour of extra time to complete the video review plus translation time, billed at the rate of $230 per hour.
Attend Approved Training Workshop:
Only those candidates who have successfully completed the approved training qualify to submit a certification application. Approved training consists of a 2-day workshop offered by a certified mentor or trainer of group leaders. *Currently we recommend that you also have Basic Parent Group Leader Training
Experience Requirements:
Conduct a minimum of 4 groups, utilizing the complete parent and child school readiness video series (each group lasting a minimum of 4 weeks). The optimal number per group is 12-14 parents. It is required that more than 50% of those starting the program complete all sessions (minimum 6 parents finishing the groups). A list of dates, locations, and number of attendees must be submitted.
Submit to the Certification Committee Workshop Session Checklists for 4 complete groups. See the Parent Program resources page for the School Readiness Parenting Program Leader Agendas and Checklists
Submit to the Certification Committee weekly evaluations by each parent who attends each of the 4+ sessions for four groups.
Submit to the Certification Committee final program evaluations (Final Satisfaction Questionnaire) by each parent who attended the four groups.
Peer and Self-Evaluation:
Submit 2 Peer and 2 Self-evaluations using the form below, from each of two different group sessions. (A total of four evaluations will be submitted.)
Peer & Self Evaluation (Parent)Feedback from Certified Mentor or Trainer:
Telephone consultation from Certified/Accredited Mentor or Trainer. Group leaders may request telephone consultation which is provided by a Mentor or Trainer. Consultation calls are contracted through IY office.
In-Person Consultation workshops led by Certified/Accredited Mentor or Trainer. These workshops consist of 6-8 pairs of group leaders who present videos of their parent group sessions for peer review and feedback from IY Mentor or Trainer. Agencies may request these consultation workshops at their site or send group leaders to regularly held workshops in Seattle.
Video review of complete parent group session by IY Certified/Accredited Mentor or Trainer. After submitting a video recording of a complete parent group session, the group leader will receive a detailed written report of their performance. The report will provide specific feedback for the group leader. Two complete video reviews are included in the certification fee. For each additional video review (beyond the first two), a fee is required due to the time intensive process of the review and preparation of the written report. Most group leaders submit at least two videos (at different times, from different groups) before obtaining final approval. Please send video from the child-directed play program, and your follow-up video will be from interactive reading. *For leaders who are already certified/accredited basic parent group leaders, please send a video session from the Interactive Reading program.
The video submission should be labeled, identifying the program/part and submitted with the group leader’s self-evaluation checklist and must meet minimal requirements for following session protocols. These protocols are outlined in the PDF below.
Please see the Tips for Preparing your video for review below.
Tips for Preparing Video for Review (Parent)Maintaining Fidelity after Accreditation/Certification
In order to assure that accredited group leaders continue to deliver the program with fidelity, we highly recommend the following:
-Accredited group leaders should lead at least one group every 18 months
-Accredited group leaders should participate in a fidelity check every 18 months: this could be a coaching session with an accredited Peer Coach, a video review of a group by a Mentor or Trainer from the Incredible Years office, an in-person consultation day, or Skype consultation calls with a certified Mentor.
Even expert group leaders benefit from on-going feedback and discussions about their work. Without fidelity checks, it is easy for group leaders to drift from the original model. Fidelity checks are also a chance for group leaders to hear about new materials or innovations to the programs.