CPS Certification Statistics Online

Monthly certification numbers are available online, along with the new CPS Certification program accomplishments under About: Statistics. 

2005 Highlights:

• In 2005, there were 7,802 new certifications.
• Overall, re-certification is expected to be somewhere between 41 and 42 percent. [NOTE: As of 3/28/2006, this was 45%.]
• 787 courses were offered
• 629 certification courses 
• 158 Certification Renewal Courses (available August 1)

The Postcards Have Left the Building

Since personalized letters are being mailed out approximately 12 weeks before your certification expiration date and an e-mail message goes out eight weeks in advance, you will NO LONGER receive a generic postcard six to eight weeks before your current certification expires.  

We are using up our supplies and expect the July/August expirations to be the last batch.

Renewal course: What's next?

To help people participating in the Certification Renewal Course, a new fact sheet is available under Resources--> Forms.  It has a summary of the requirements for recertification through the course.   A copy is also being provided with each course box which the lead instructor may copy and share with their attendees before or during the course.

Safe Kids is interested in your experiences with our CPS Customer Service by toll-free phone (877-366-8154) and cps.certification@safekids.org.  Please take a few minutes to complete the survey available on the certification Web site under Contact Us. 

This 20-question survey should take no more than five minutes to complete.  There is no limit to the number of times you can share your opinions with us. Thank you for helping us improve our customer service. 

Recertification Reminder

Don’t Risk Your Certification—You may recertify up to four months before your certification expiration date. 

• Seat checks may be logged at any time during your certification cycle and must be approved before you can register for recertification. 
• You may complete registration up to 4 months in advance of your certification expiration date.  Registration MUST be completed by your certification expiration date.

Once your recertification registration is processed, you will have 30 days to complete the online exam. The test does not have to be completed by your certification expiration date.

If your test is never started, inadvertently submitted or incomplete when the term expires, it will be graded and you won’t get your money refunded.

End-user Operational Group Continues

Last year, Safe Kids organized an operational group of end-users of the certification system to recommend ways to make the day-to-day use of the system more user-friendly. As we made improvements, this group helped us with implementation, so that the system works well for instructors and technicians.

We had wonderful responses and have worked with three groups.  Their tenure is over, so please consider signing up for a three-month term. We are seeking three technicians and three instructors. The group started meeting by monthly conference call starting in March 2006.  Membership will rotate to keep the group fresh and allow as many people as are interested to participate. 

Interested? E-mail Kerry Chausmer with a statement (three paragraphs maximum) about your history with CPS certification programs and why you would like to be involved with this group.

A Reminder About Reservation Requests

When administering a controlled course, the lead instructor (or course administrator) has ongoing responsibilities during the student registration process.

The system allows anyone to request a reservation for a seat for any controlled class. However, it is the lead instructor’s responsibility to approve or deny that request. Currently, the lead instructor will not receive notification of incoming requests. It is his or her responsibility to log into the system and check for any pending requests regularly. 

If no action is taken, reservation requests will automatically be approved after five days. However, the instructor does have the ability to cancel a reservation as long as the individual has not already paid, completing the registration process.

Are You A CPS Nerd? Test Your Knowledge!

This section of the newsletter highlights trivia and facts about child passenger safety.

Please submit your ideas to Kerry Chausmer. Be sure to include how you would like your name to appear.

Q: Who is the proud owner of this license plate?

Answer at the end of this newsletter.

Going to Lifesavers? Join the Safe Kids Worldwide media team Sunday evening, April 9, for a fun media relations contest where you and your fellow CPS friends can put each other in the hot seat to see who can stay cool going nose-to-lens with a seasoned, no-nonsense news reporter. Sign up at the Safe Kids booth and join us in Room 18AB from 7:30 to 8:30 and practice saying “yes, that’s my final answer.”

Submitted by Dawn Deeks, Safe Kids Worldwide (Washington, D.C.)

Safe Kids Worldwide Offers New Generic Car Seat Checklist

A panel of more than 25 child passenger safety advocates from across the country have revised the Safe Kids Buckle Up child safety checklist.  A generic format of the checklist is now available as a Word document so you can add your liability statement and logo. Go to Resources: Forms to download an original. Please remember, the generic checklist form is not to be used for registered Safe Kids Buckle Up events or activities.  It does not get returned to Safe Kids Buckle Up for analysis.

The new checklist is different in that it enables data collection for two children. The back of the form, if printed upside down, enables the technician to fold the front of the form up and record data on child #2 without having to flip the paper over.  

A tutorial on the back refreshes technicians who might need a quick refresher prior to beginning the event.  The new form assumes, for example, that technicians who are checking children will know what a “correct harness” is and can check YES or NO to the question.  If a technician does not know for example, that harness straps should be in the slots below the shoulders of a rear-facing infant, then the Senior Checker or event coordinator should find another event task for that technician until remedial training can be provided.  By eliminating the tutorial from the form itself, space was freed up to serve the second child.

The new form will be reviewed in August 2006 and your comments can be included as the original review team takes a second look at the form and makes any needed revisions.  We look forward to your comments.  Please feel free to contact Lorrie Walker for constructive feedback. 

Submitted by Lorrie Walker, Safe Kids Worldwide (Washington, D.C.)

Roster Sense: E-mailed letter improves communication

We sent out an e-mail version of the acceptance letter for a course and found it to be quick and easy. E-mail communication is much easier to crank out quickly from the most accurate information we have — the e-mail address the student signed up with!

How do you do it? Just cut and paste the actual roster into Excel.

1. Log in
2. Click on “Manage My Courses”
3. Select the course
4. Select “Print Roster”
5. Select all; copy and paste into an Excel file. Next, unlock or unprotect the cells. Then add the last three columns to fill in this logistical information we always need to capture so everything is in one file. 

Within four days, I had everyone’s reply complete, and only had to call four people to get their information verbally as they had not responded to the e-mail. It worked very efficiently for me, and Mark used it too for his Sidney class with the same results. Again, I just clicked on their e-mail address once in Excel and cut and pasted the note I wanted to send.

I sent them individual, personalized e-mail messages so they would not be as likely to bounce back as a message addressed to too many people. I only had one message bounce back, and it was due to a typo in the e-mail address — important information to know, both for the individual’s Safe Kids Worldwide profile and for our communication with him. It took me less than 30 minutes to send these out with an individual address on each one.  Simply click on the person's e-mail address in the Excel file and it brings up your e-mail window. Next, just paste the message text and off it goes.

A sample of the e-mail message is available. I hope you are able to use this approach — we need all the time and energy saved up for our courses!

Submitted by Ann King (Central City, Neb.)

Do I have to be CPS certified to use the organization management system? (added Dec. 15, 2005)

No. Anyone is able to register their organization with Safe Kids. In many instances, this will be the administrative or accounting contact person for your agency. This person, referred to as the organization manager, will be responsible for registering the organization with Safe Kids and managing online payments by purchase order or e-voucher. Through the Web site, the organization manager will also be able to track affiiliates' certifications, reschedule registrations and handle substitutions. Responsible for accounting and affiliate management, the organization manager does not provide CPS training or education unless they are currently CPS certified.

CPS Nerd Answers

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Safe Kids Worldwide
CPS Certification
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004

Phone: 877-366-8154 (toll free)
Fax: 202-393-2072
mailto:cps.certification@safekids.org