The Registry Story
The nation’s first Early Childhood Care and Afterschool Education Workforce Registry
Our Core Vision & Mission
Since day one, our vision has been for Wisconsin's Early Childhood Care and After-School Education workforce serving children birth-12 to be recognized as a profession, providing high quality early learning and engaging in continuous professional growth.
Everyday we work to promote members' professional development opportunities and collect the data that informs public policy and advocacy efforts to support the workforce.
Our Founding
In the late 1980s, representatives from several agencies and organizations across the state came together to address growing needs for an agency to verify and recognize the achievements of Wisconsin’s Early Childhood Care and Afterschool Education workforce. After years of collaborative research in Wisconsin and the nation, The Registry Inc. was established in 1991 as the nation’s first Early Childhood Care and Afterschool Education workforce registry.
Over the years, The Registry Inc. has continued to recognize the achievements of Early Childhood Care and Afterschool Education professionals and promoting professional growth. Taking this mission another step, The Registry Inc. worked to develop and implement a system to approve training and trainers in 2007, ensuring providers can find quality training opportunities across the state.
Registry Legacy
The Registry Inc. continues to passionately support the Early Childhood Care and Afterschool Education professionals by workforce sharing data— including information about wages— at the state and national levels. The Registry Inc. believes concrete and accurate data is the way to positively change the workforce and influence how the workforce is perceived.
Other states have noticed the work being done in Wisconsin. In 2014, the state of Minnesota contracted with The Registry Inc. to run their registry’s operations. The Registry Inc. hired additional staff to operate Achieve, the Minnesota Center for Professional Development. Three years later, the state of Michigan contracted with The Registry Inc. to relaunch their state’s registry, now known as MiRegistry.
Being the only registry in the country to run operations for three states, The Registry Inc. adopted the name Wisconsin Registry to better reflect the team solely dedicated and committed to serving and working with Wisconsin's Early Childhood Care and Afterschool Education professionals. In November 2023, the Wisconsin Registry became a free registry for general membership, an exciting step to be one less worry for child care providers in our state!
The Wisconsin Registry is committed to being your career development and professional growth partner!
Achieve processes membership applications in Minnesota, providing personalized membership application support.
MiRegistry is Michigan's all-in-one resource for individuals to track professional development and grow professionally.
Our Partners
The Registry Inc. is a non-profit organization that has developed close relationships and partnerships over the years with agencies and organizations across the state to find ways to best support you. Our partners include:
