Empowering Partners, Operating with Integrity

In the late 1980s, representatives from several agencies and organizations across Wisconsin came together to address the growing need for an agency to verify and recognize the achievements of Wisconsin’s Early Childhood Care and Education/Out of School Time (ECE/OST) workforce. After years of collaborative research in Wisconsin and the nation, The Registry, Inc. was established in 1991 as the nation’s first ECE/OST workforce registry.

For over 20 years The Registry, Inc. successfully operated Wisconsin’s ECE/OST workforce registry as its primary program. The Registry, Inc.’s passion and impact established the organization as a national leader. In 2014, the State of Minnesota contracted with The Registry, Inc. to administer their ECE/OST workforce registry, Achieve – The MN Center for Professional Development. The Registry, Inc. expanded, hiring additional staff, building capacity in administrative functions, and adapting best practices to best suit new contract requirements. The Registry, Inc.’s success in not only onboarding a second statewide registry, but also successfully operating that registry remotely proved to be groundbreaking. Thanks to that success, the State of Michigan confidently contracted with The Registry, Inc. to relaunch their state’s ECE/OST workforce registry, now known as MiRegistry, in 2017.

The continued success of The Registry, Inc., including its position as the only agency in the nation to manage operations of three unique ECE/OST state workforce registries, has led to even further expansion of services offered. While originally, “The Registry, Inc.” solely represented services for the State of Wisconsin, that contract and its related work is now  housed under the Wisconsin Registry brand to better reflect the team solely dedicated and committed to serving and working with Wisconsin’s ECE/OST professionals.

Currently, The Registry, Inc. is home to three ECE/OST state workforce registries (MiRegistry, Achieve – the MN Center for Professional Development, and Wisconsin Registry) as well as Wisconsin’s Child Care Foundational Trainings and Encouraging Little Minds: WI Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Workforce Registry.