How to Create a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC) in 7 steps

This guide explains how to create a Children’s Product Certificate when manufacturing or importing products classified as children’s products. This process involves specifying product and company information, as well as listing children’s product safety rules for which the product has been tested.

Note that you can only create a Children’s Product Certificate once third-party lab testing has been completed.

1. Product identification

The first section of the Children’s Product Certificate is dedicated to identifying the product. You must provide the product’s name and description. While a Children’s Product Certificate is normally created for a single product model, you can, in some cases, include multiple variations of the same product.

Example

Product name: Plush Elephant, Large size
Variants: Green, Blue, Red
Description: Soft toy made of 100% polyester and PE foam

2. List of CPSC children’s product safety rules

This section is dedicated to the list of CPSC children’s product safety rules applicable to your product. Each rule listed here must also be supported by a third-party test report issued by a CPSC-accepted laboratory. As such, you cannot arbitrarily list standards.

Instead, you must first identify all applicable CPSC children’s product safety rules for your product, and then arrange third-party testing corresponding to these rules.

Note that one product can be subject to more than one CPSC children’s product safety rule, as these cover different aspects.

Examples

PART 1250 – SAFETY STANDARD MANDATING ASTM F963 FOR TOYS

PART 1303 – BAN OF LEAD-CONTAINING PAINT AND CERTAIN CONSUMER PRODUCTS BEARING LEAD-CONTAINING PAINT

PART 1217 – SAFETY STANDARD FOR TODDLER BEDS

3. US manufacturer or importer certifying the product

In this section, you must provide information about the US manufacturer or importer introducing the product to the US market. This generally includes the following information:

• Company name
• Company address
• Phone number

4. Contact details for the person maintaining records of test results

In this section, you must provide contact information for the person who has access to the test reports on which your Children’s Product Certificate is based.

This person may be contacted in case of review by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection or the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission itself. Retailers and Amazon may also contact this person.

It is therefore essential that the person listed on your Children’s Product Certificate is available and ready to submit the test report if asked.

Examples

• Name of the person
• Address
• Phone number
• Email

5. Manufacturing date and place

Your Children’s Product Certificate must specify the manufacturing date and production. This is not necessarily a single day, as manufacturing often takes place over a longer period. Instead, it is common to specify the month or year.

A Children’s Product Certificate is meant to be created for a single shipment, for the sake of traceability. What truly matters is that your batch can be traced in case of defects or other product safety issues.

Finally, the manufacturing place is often specified as the city and the country, rather than the exact location of the factory plant. That being said, you may need to be more precise if your supplier operates more than one facility in the same city.

The goal of specifying the manufacturing location is to ensure that defects causing product safety issues can be linked to a specific facility, if this were ever to become a necessity.

Example

Manufacturing date: May 2026

Manufacturing place: Monterrey, Mexico

6. Testing date and place

A Children’s Product Certificate can only be issued on the basis of third-party testing. It is therefore necessary to specify when and where the products certified were tested. Again, the purpose is to ensure that the test result can be traced to a specific time and facility. It may not be possible to specify the exact day a certain test took place.

Note that you may not need to obtain a new test report each time you create a Children’s Product Certificate. While there are periodic testing requirements for children’s products in the US, this does not mean that every single batch is tested – unless you choose to do so.

It should also be noted that you can only reference test reports valid for your product model. As such, you cannot create a CPC on the basis of a test report for a similar product or one made of a similar material. A test report is only valid if it’s based on the correct standards and a sample with the exact same design and material was tested.

Example

Testing date: April 2026

Testing place: Shenzhen, China

7. CPSC-accepted third-party testing company information

Finally, you need to provide information about the CPSC-accepted testing company that performed the lab test. Note that CPSC-accepted in this context refers to testing companies and facilities listed in the CPSC database for accepted labs. As such, you cannot list any testing company in this section.

I recommend referencing the name and ID as it is specified in the database, rather than the general company name. The sections below explain how you can find this data:

Step 1: Search the lab name

Step 2: Access lab information

Examples

Name of the CPSC-accepted testing lab
Contact person
Email
Phone
Lab ID

Children’s Product Certificate Checklist

Step 1: Specify product information, ensuring that the CPC can be tied to a certain product model/SKU

Step 2: CPSC children’s product safety rules

• Identify all applicable CPSC children’s product safety rules for your product
• Arrange third-party lab testing
• List all rules covered by your test report

Step 3: Specify US manufacturer or importer information

Step 4: Add contact details for the person holding the test report

Step 5: Specify manufacturing place and date (ensure that the batch can be traced to a certain production run and facility)

Step 6: Specify testing date and place

Step 7: Specify the CPSC-accepted lab that performed the test and issued the test report supporting your CPC.