So you want to be a Child Passenger Safety Technician?

[LuvBug03]

So you want to be a Child Passenger Safety Technician?

The role of a Child Passenger Safety Technician is to educate parents and caregivers on proper usage of car-seats and safety restraints in the car. A CPST is not a car-seat installing service and everyone should leave safer than when they arrived, even if all they left with is knowledge. It is a thankless job, but it is worth it!

SafeKids.org overview- http://www.safekids.org/certification/certification.html

Here are the basic steps you should take to become a CPST:


Locate a course in which you can participate by searching www.safekids.org/certification for courses. Your best bet is to search by entering only your state, clicking the box "Also Show Invitation Only/Controlled Courses", and hitting submit. Controlled courses are no different from public except they are usually set aside with a specific group in mind(training a shift of firemen, etc). Just contact the instructor and ask if you can participate. It may also be helpful to contact your local or state coalition for addition information.
Direct safekids search link(may take a moment to load)- https://ssl13.cyzap.net/dzapps/dbzap.bin/apps/assess/Webmembers/tool?pToolCode=TAB9&pCategory1=TAB9_COURSESEARCH&Webid=safekidscertSQL&pSearch=yes
Register for your course, pay any and all fees, and confirm your seat with the instructor.
Familiarize yourself with the training manual http://www.cpsboard.org/techmanual_downloads.htm
Show up to class ready to get dirty and have fun! It really isn't hard, especially if you already have a passion for CPS.

Good Luck :thumbsup:

[jsta1005]

I was interested in getting certified but I can't find anywhere on the website that says the cost of the course. Do you know?

[Jeanum]

The Safe Kids course fee is $60 according to the info. on the main certification page at http://www.safekids.org/certification/certification.html :) Some courses also have a local fee in addition to the $60 Safe Kids fee. If there is a local fee, the amount can vary quite a bit, from as little as no local fee at all, to fairly expensive. The local fee, if any, would be stated in the details for the specific course listing.

[Pepse]

hmm there are no courses in ONtario?? si there somewhere else that might put on the courses?

[Jeanum]

The certification through Safe Kids is U.S. specific. :) There is a CRST certification course in Canada but it's not through Safe Kids. Canadian members have posted about CRST certification before in the Canadian and International (http://www.car-seat.org/forumdisplay.php?f=17)section of the forum I believe if you look for threads there, or Canadian techs could perhaps chime in here to add the Canadian certification info. to this article thread.