WHAT IS A CHILD PASSENGER SAFETY TECHNICIAN?
Child Passenger Safety Technicians are car seat experts who have taken a roughly 40-hour class with curriculum written by NHTSA in collaboration with National CPS Board and Safe Kids Worldwide. During the class they learn the ins and outs of car seats, installation options, vehicle differences, harnessing procedures and more. They practice hands-on exercises where an instructor checks to make sure they understand what they are doing and why.
To remain a technician one must take continuing education courses, learn about new seats available on the market, show that we are actively involved in training parents and have some of our car seat installations checked by an instructor every two years.
We highly recommend you visit with a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (which is not necessarily your local fire station) with each car seat as you move through the stages of car seat safety. “We’ve found that families who worked with a certified CPST prior to delivery were 10 times less likely to make mistakes,” says Dr. Benjamin Hoffman, a pediatrician and nationally recognized expert in child passenger safety. “However, 77% of those families still made serious errors, so it is not enough.” Practice makes perfect. Read up on your car seat and car in their respective manuals, watch some videos, get hands on and visit a Child Passenger Safety Technician.
Our team members, Greg and Amie, have a combined 25+ years of experience as certified CPS technicians and here to answer all your questions about car seats.
WANT TO FIND A CAR SEAT TECHNICIAN NEAR YOU TO GET A CAR SEAT CHECKED?
CPS Technicians, get info and pricing here.
