She Was Ready to Enroll. Both Sections Were Full. We Had a Faster Option.

The AS-Degree Companion to Our ECE/CDA Certificates · New 5-Week Asynchronous Sections at Theoria Technical College

She called Academic Affairs on a Thursday afternoon.

She had waited until she got her paycheck to enroll. Her kids were in the car. She had been thinking about ECE/CDA-200 and ECE/CDA-300 for six months the two flagship certificate classes everybody in her workplace had already taken. When our office picked up, she asked whether there was still room in the next cohort.

There was not. Both sections were full. Again.

Our ECE/CDA certificate courses fill up every term. They have since we launched them. That is not a problem we are going to apologize for it means the field is voting with its enrollment, and it is voting for the same credential our alumni are already using to move up the career ladder in California child care.

But here is the part the caller on Thursday afternoon did not know. And it is the part we want the rest of the field to know.

The Companion Pathway

The Associate of Science in Early Childhood Education at Theoria offers EEAS courses that cover the same core subjects the ECE/CDA certificates cover the child development, the guidance and behavior, the health and safety, the family engagement in a five-week, fully asynchronous online format through the Orbund LMS. No two-day in-person weekend lecture. No 90-day timeline. Same rigor, faster clock, and every unit counts toward a college degree instead of stopping at a certificate.

If the ECE/CDA certificate is the flagship credential for the working teacher who needs the field-recognized card in her wallet, the EEAS async companion is the pathway for the working teacher who needs the same knowledge on a faster clock and who wants those units to keep working for her long after the certificate would have expired.

For the Teacher Who Missed the Cutoff

You do not have to wait a full quarter. You do not have to rearrange your Saturdays. The next EEAS async section opens this fall, runs five weeks, and delivers the same content foundation the ECE/CDA cohorts get mapped to the Department of Social Services Title 22 Rules and Regulations, aligned with CDA credential competencies.

You leave with college credit toward your degree, a completed applied portfolio.

Industry Alignment

The EEAS async courses map to:

• California Title 22 licensing expectations for child care staff qualifications

• CDA (Child Development Associate) credential competencies — the six CDA competency standards are threaded into the EEAS core coursework

• NAEYC 2019 Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education and the NAEYC Professional Standards for Early Childhood Educators

For the Director Reading This

If your ECE/CDA seats went fast, and the teacher you were about to nominate is now on a waitlist do not wait for the next class. Send her into the EEAS async section starting this fall. She keeps working. She keeps her Saturdays. Five weeks later she has college credit in her transcript and a supervised field portfolio in her hands.

Enroll This Fall

The next Fall 2026 EEAS async sections open in the coming weeks. Sections fill on a first-come, first-enrolled basis.

Enroll, or nominate a member of your team: Academic Affairs · academics@theoriatechnical.com · (760) 487-8436

Because the caller on Thursday afternoon did not want to wait until January. She did not have to. Neither do you.

"A college with vision. A career with purpose."