National CPS Certification eNews
CPS MASTHEAD_email
November 1, 2005
Announcements and Notices

New on the CPS Web site

The Resources section of the site has been under construction lately. Please check out some of the newest additions.

  • Instructions
    Three PowerPoint presentations to help with re-certification and registration:
    • Complete re-certification process for both technicians and instructors
    • Registering for a controlled renewal course using a check or P.O.
    • Registering for a public certification course using a credit/debit/check card
  • Forms
    • Policies and Procedures manual: October 2005 edition
    • Practical Skills for Re-certification Log
      This tool is provided for each technician or instructor to document CPS inspection and practical skills he or she personally demonstrates. This form should not be submitted to Safe Kids, but it provides important hard-copy documentation for your personal records.
    • Fee Table
      This updated list reviews current program fees, including those associated with late registration and cancellation.


Re-Certification

Don’t Risk Your Certification—You may re-certify 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 re-certification. 
  • You must complete registration no later than your certification expiration date. 

Once your re-certification 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.


 

 Upcoming Program Developments

Spanish-language certification course

Course administrators and certified instructors will be able to register Spanish-language certification courses online beginning January 20, 2006.  Some additional time has been incorporated to allow for quality assurance evaluation of Spanish-speaking instructors. 

As the certifying body, Safe Kids certifies instructors to teach the course in the language in which they completed their instructor candidacy.  Therefore, all currently certified instructors are certified as English language instructors. 

In order for an instructor to be approved for a second language, Safe Kids requires a professional assessment of his/her Spanish language proficiency.  This assessment will measure proficiency and the speaker’s ability to use the language effectively and appropriately in a classroom setting.    Current formal language assessments will gladly be accepted in lieu of the language proficiency evaluation.

Safe Kids Worldwide is offering a limited number of grants to cover the cost of this required assessment.  This is our effort to build a cadre of Spanish-speaking instructors around the country. 

Additional details available on our Web site in a letter to CPS Instructors with a separate grant application.

 

 Just for Instructors

Retake Course

Many of you have started scheduling Retake courses for technician candidates who need to retake the written exam from the certification course.   This “course” is a way for Safe Kids to track the distribution and proctoring of the written exam retake.  It is not a NHTSA or Safe Kids course, and there is no content except of proctoring the retake exam.

Here is a section from the Web site under Course Administration: After the Course: Retake Courses.

A Retake course can be created at any time.  However, only technician candidates who have failed the written certification exam are eligible for the course.

For example, if you believe that two people did not pass the written exam during a Certification course, based on observation or unofficial scoring, you can schedule and create the Retake course prior to receiving the final score report. In real time, this means that the Retake course could potentially be held within a week of the score reports and pass/fail letters being sent out after the original Certification course.

Technician candidates cannot be registered for a Retake course until after the official written exam scores have been reported. Individuals can only be registered for a Retake course by the lead instructor of their original certification course.

Instructors, you are able to register students for active Retake courses held by any instructor.  Choose the VIEW FAILED TECHNICIAN CANDIDATES option from the course details page under MANAGE MY COURSES. Students can be registered for any retake course conducted by any instructor within 90 days of notification of exam failure.

PLEASE NOTE: All retake exams must be received by Safe Kids no more than 90 days after the original notification date of certification course failure, so please register for a retake courses accordingly.

 Just for Fun

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.

No submissions this month.

 CPS Resources

Auto Cashes Hit Close to Home for Parents and their Children

Did you know that most motor vehicle crashes involving children happen when parents feel safest, during everyday routines on local roads?   Learn more from the Partners for Child Passenger Safety 2005 Fact and Trend Report.

As an educator and member of the CPS community, you will find that the information contained in this new report is user friendly, graphically based and provides new opportunities for discussion on the many aspects of child passenger safety.  The report contains updated facts and trends about children involved in crashes from 1999 through 2004 and examines the circumstances that existed when these crashes took place. This is the first in what will become an annual publication of Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS), updated each year to reflect changing patterns of behavior and child restraint use.

To download a copy, go to www.chop.edu/carseat   The link to the 2005 Fact and Trend Report will be located on the left side of this page under “Educational Materials”.

Submitted by Tracey Durham, Partners for Child Passenger Safety (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Share Your Knowledge!

Recipe for Successful Instructor Candidates & Mentors: Part 1 of 2

PART I: Instructor Candidates
PART II: Mentors (December edition of the CPS Express!)

Start with a seasoned, experienced and accurate technician -- technically superior in all aspects of child passenger safety.

  • Add many hours experience working with other technicians and instructors to gain experience, and regular use of his or her CPS skills.  For nice seasoning, age technician for a minimum of 12 months.*
  • Add to that many inspections, participation in inspection events, active coalition membership (not just Safe Kids), and strong CPS advocacy. 
  • Let rest for the time necessary to remain current with CPS issues.  Add current recalls, new products, new technology, etc. 
  • Mix in a subscription to Safe Ride News and a copy of the current LATCH manual. 
  • Garnish with review of all the national CPS policies and procedures associated with being an instructor candidate.

Other important ingredients include excellent communication skills; good rapport with parents, caregivers, children and other professionals; some teaching experience; and a passion for sharing CPS information!

*National guidelines have a minimum of six months of certification.

Submitted by Janelle Rose, Program Professionals (Wyandotte, MI)

Are You A CPS Educator?  

  • Do you identify and mentor a technician to the instructor candidate role?
  • For families you work with who have kids under age 3, can they explain when a child should turn from rear-facing to forward-facing?

Submitted by the National CPS Board, Quality Assurance Committee

 FAQs

What happened to the Log In option? (added Aug. 1, 2005) 

The Online Services link will take you to the login page for your CPS certification profile. 
 

CPS Nerd Answers

No submissions this month.

 

 Contact Us

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

This newsletter was e-mailed as a benefit of your national CPS certification