57 National Child and Youth Care Practitioner Professional Certifcation: Promoting Competent Care for Children and Youth Tis article provides an overview of the his- tory, development, and conceptual framework guiding a national certifcation initiative for child and youth care workers. Summarized are descriptions of three certifcation assess- ment measures (supervisor assessment, situ- ational judgment certifcation exam, and portfolio assessment), integrated with results from an international pilot validation study. Te certifcation program is the frst national effort to identify and assess underlying child and youth work competencies that transcend work setting (community-based to out-of- home care), population characteristics (diagnosed mental health concerns, experiencing child abuse, etc.), and age of the child/youth (early childhood through adolescence). Te authors assert, building on a seven-year collaborative effort to establish the certifcation program, that it is time to transform the child and youth serving workforce crisis into an opportu- nity to bring together the varied child- and youth-caring felds into a united profession that has a rich knowledge and skill base of international scope. Dale Curry Kent State University Frank Eckles Child and Youth Care Certifcation Institute of Texas Carol Stuart Ryerson University Basil Qaqish University of North Carolina-Greensboro Child Welfare • Vol. 89, No. 2