Direct Support Professional Certificate Program

User Guide

Congratulations!

You have taken the first step toward completing a Certification Program in the practice of a Direct Support Professional. By doing so, you are joining a community of staff who are committed to providing the highest quality of service to people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities across the country and are doing so with compassion and professionalism. We applaud and appreciate your commitment to enhancing your skills and growing your career.

The DSP Certificate Program will cover a wide range of topics that are essential in providing the highest quality of service. This program will consist of approximately 34 hours of online instruction with quizzes and an additional 6 hours of classroom instruction. The program is intended to reinforce the core skills you may already have and to challenge you to think more deeply about the impact of your work and the “best practices” that are being promoted nationally.

The Curriculum is broken into three general segments with each one building upon the previous. While not required, we do encourage you to follow the curriculum in the order with which it is laid out. Following successful completion of each segment, you will be required to complete a two-hour in-person session. The schedule and locations for these sessions is attached and is also posted on You may proceed with the online courses even if you have not completed the two-hour in-person session, but all six hours of class time must be completed to qualify for certification.

Each segment of online learning also has a corresponding fieldwork requirement. You will be able to select from a list of field work experiences and will be asked to observe or participate and write a brief reflection on what you learned. These requirements are intended to happen on-the-job so additional time out of work is not required.

Direct Support Professional Certificate Program

Program Schedule

The suggested order in which a learner should complete the course is as follows. Please be aware that the system automatically organizes lessons by alphabetical order. Instead, please follow the schedule as described below. The times to complete each lesson are approximates and will vary by user.

  1. DSP 1: Segment 1
  2. The Sherlock Center: The History of Developmental Disabilities
  3. CDS: Introduction to Developmental Disabilities
The Language and Ideas of Best Practices
  1. CDS: Direct Support Professionalism
Becoming a Direct Support Professional
Contemporary Best Practices
Applying Ethics in Everyday Work
  1. CDS: Individual Rights and Choice
Overview of Individual Rights
Restrictions of Individual Rights
Overcoming a Past of Barriers and Restrictions
  1. CDS: Maltreatment: Prevention and Response
The Direct Support Professional Role
Balancing Rights with Protection
The Ethical Role of the DSP
Characteristics of People Supported that Affect Risk
  1. CDS: Civil Rights and Advocacy
Your Role in Effective Advocacy / 45 minutes
65 minutes
45 minutes
45 minutes
45 minutes
50 minutes
50 minutes
50 minutes
24 minutes
24 minutes
24 minutes
24 minutes
60 minutes
  1. Complete Field Work Option Segment 1 – Pick one assignment (see page 4)
  1. In-Person Session 1
/ 30 minutes
2 hours
  1. DSP 1: Segment 2
  2. CDS: Everyone Can Communicate
What is Communication and Why is It Important
How People Communicate
The Role of the DSP as a Communication Partner
  1. CDS: Positive Behavioral Support
Understanding Behavior
  1. CDS: Person Centered Planning
Foundations of Person-Centered Planning
  1. CDS: Implementing Participant Directed Supports
Understanding Participant Directed Supports
  1. CDS: Community Inclusion
The DSP Role in Community Inclusion
Community Bridge Building and Networking
  1. CDS: Understanding Transitions Across the Life Span
The Role of Families and Support Professionals
  1. CDS: Working with Families and Support Networks
Family Networks
Creating Partnerships with Support Networks / 75 minutes
75 minutes
75 minutes
75 minutes
60 minutes
16 minutes
60 minutes
60 minutes
19 minutes
45 minutes
45 minutes
  1. Complete Field Work Option Segment 2 – Pick one assignment (see page 4)
  1. In-Person Session 2
/ 2
30 minutes
2 hours
  1. DSP 1: Segment 3
  2. CDS: Teaching People with Developmental Disabilities
  3. Understanding Teaching
  4. CDS: Cultural Competence
  5. Communication
  6. Daily Support
  7. CDS: Personal Care
  8. Understanding Personal and Self Care
  9. Individualizing Personal Care
  10. CDS: Safety
  11. What is Risk
  12. Balancing Risk with Individual Safety and Choice
  13. Personal Safety
  14. Individual Safety Plans
  15. CDS: Home and Community Living
  16. Comfortable Living
  17. Supporting Home Living: The DSP Role
  18. CDS: Intro to Mental Health and Mental Illness
  19. Overview of Mental Health and the Role of the DSP
  20. CDS: Professional Documentation Practices
  21. The Purpose and Meaning of Documentation in Direct Support Work
  22. Staff Communication Logs
  23. CDS: You’ve Got a Friend
  24. The Importance of Relationships
  25. Barriers, Challenges, and Opportunities to Making Friends
/ 60 minutes
50 minutes
50 minutes
65 minutes
65 minutes
25 minutes
25 minutes
25 minutes
25 minutes
65 minutes
65 minutes
80 minutes
17 minutes
17 minutes
50 minutes
50 minutes
  1. Complete Fieldwork Option Segment 3 – Pick one assignment (see page 4)
  1. In-Person Session 3
/ 30 minutes
2 hours

Direct Support Professional Certificate Program

Fieldwork Assignment Guide

Fieldwork Options – Segment 1 (pick one assignment)

  • Meet with an Administrator to learn about the history of your organization. Consider agency mission, vision and values, and key times of growth and change. Was such change aligned with the mission?
  • Meet with your Supervisor to discuss the process of filing a report of suspected mistreatment. Document the flow of information and administrative policy for handling such. Document critical decision points and how resolution and future prevention is achieved.

Fieldwork Options – Segment 2(pick one assignment)

  • Participate in a Person-Centered planning session. Discuss whether it was truly person-centered and if not, what could be done better.
  • Identify one person with whom you work and map their local community by walking in a half-mile radius of their home. Identify potential places of interest for employment and for belonging.
  • Identify one person you support who has a positive behavior support plan. Meet with the psychologist or plan writer and discuss how the plan might look different if not for a commitment to positive supports. Discuss why the positive approach is more effective and more ethical.

Fieldwork Options – Segment 3(pick one assignment)

  • Identify someone you work with and learn about their heritage. Identify customs, rituals, routines that are important in their culture and in their family. Discuss what you can do to honor that heritage and assist the person in their express of such.
  • Consider a person you work with who may be seeking opportunities to engage in an activity that has potential risk. Discuss what can you and the team do to clearly identify the potential risk factors and take steps to educate / prepare the individual.
  • Identify someone you work with who has few relationships in his/her life. What can you do to help him/her meet new people and to promote friendships/relationships? Discuss areas of interest for the person and where you would go to find people with similar interests. Then discuss how you can help the person to become a “regular” in this place or activity with people who have a shared interest.

Updated August 1, 2018