(1) Not later than March 1, 2014, the State Department of Education shall create and operate the Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System. The system shall be designed in order to:

(a) Establish a database of Nebraska's early childhood education workforce;

(b) Verify educational degrees and professional credentials held and relevant training completed by employees of participating applicable child care and early childhood education programs; and

(c) Provide such information to the Department of Health and Human Services for use in evaluating applications to be rated at a step above step one under section 71-1959.

(2) When an applicable child care or early childhood education program participating in the quality rating and improvement system developed pursuant to section 71-1955 applies under section 71-1959 to be rated at a step above step one, the child care or early childhood education program shall report the educational degrees and professional credentials held and relevant training completed by its child care and early childhood education employees to the Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System for the program to be eligible for a quality scale rating above step one.

(3) Any child care or early childhood education provider residing or working in Nebraska may report his or her educational degrees and professional credentials held, relevant training completed, and work history to the Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System.

(4) The State Department of Education shall develop a classification system for all eligible staff members as defined in section 77-3603 who are employees of or who are self-employed individuals providing services for applicable child care and early childhood education programs listed in the Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System. The classification system shall be based on the eligible staff members' educational attainment, relevant training completed, and work history and shall be made up of five levels, with level one being the least qualified and level five being the most qualified. In order to meet the minimum qualification for classification as level one, an eligible staff member must be employed with, or be a self-employed individual providing services for, an eligible program as defined in section 77-3603 and complete at least twelve hours of in-service training at a licensed child care facility. The classification system shall be used for purposes of the tax credit granted in section 77-3605 under the School Readiness Tax Credit Act.