Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare
Plan, direct, or coordinate academic or nonacademic activities of preschools or childcare centers and programs, including before- and after-school care.
- Median annual earnings
- $57,220
- Projected change
- +1.4%
- Typical education
- Associate degree
- Employment
- 88.73K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
32% of the workforce
Growing to 90K by 2035
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Build the skills
ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
The work
What education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Confer with parents and staff to discuss educational activities and policies and students' behavioral or learning problems.
- Monitor students' progress and provide students and teachers with assistance in resolving any problems.
- Recruit, hire, train, and evaluate primary and supplemental staff and recommend personnel actions for programs and services.
- Teach classes or courses or provide direct care to children.
- Set educational standards and goals and help establish policies, procedures, and programs to carry them out.
- Determine allocations of funds for staff, supplies, materials, and equipment and authorize purchases.
- Determine the scope of educational program offerings and prepare drafts of program schedules and descriptions to estimate staffing and facility requirements.
- Prepare and maintain attendance, activity, planning, accounting, or personnel reports and records for officials and agencies, or direct preparation and maintenance activities.
- Direct and coordinate activities of teachers or administrators at daycare centers, schools, public agencies, or institutions.
- Plan, direct, and monitor instructional methods and content of educational, vocational, or student activity programs.
- Review and interpret government codes and develop procedures to meet codes and to ensure facility safety, security, and maintenance.
- Review and evaluate new and current programs to determine their efficiency, effectiveness, and compliance with state, local, and federal regulations and recommend any necessary modifications.
- Collect and analyze survey data, regulatory information, and demographic and employment trends to forecast enrollment patterns and the need for curriculum changes.
- Inform businesses, community groups, and governmental agencies about educational needs, available programs, and program policies.
- Write articles, manuals, and other publications and assist in the distribution of promotional literature about programs and facilities.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $36,545
- 25th percentile
- $45,009
- 50th percentile
- $57,220
- 75th percentile
- $73,985
- 90th percentile
- $98,609
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $57,220 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
1,271 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Associate degree
- 32%
- High school diploma or less
- 25.7%
- Some college
- 19.7%
- Bachelor's degree
- 16.3%
- Certificate
- 6.2%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 0.2%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Center Directors1,411 postings
- 02Preschool Directors1,194 postings
- 03Associate Clinical Directors833 postings
- 04Childcare Directors734 postings
- 05Assistant Directors710 postings
- 06Site Directors526 postings
- 07Before and After School Site Directors390 postings
- 08Childcare Center Directors383 postings
- 09Directors343 postings
- 10Center Managers324 postings
- 11School Directors293 postings
- 12Daycare Directors291 postings
- 13Directors of Early Childhood Education268 postings
- 14Early Childhood Directors262 postings
- 15Directors of Preschool Ministry232 postings
- 16Early Childhood Specialists217 postings
- 17After School Site Directors200 postings
- 18Assistant Center Directors172 postings
- 19Directors of Education123 postings
- 20Directors of Early Learning121 postings
Top employers
- 01KinderCare Education1,296 postings
- 02ChenMed886 postings
- 03Healthy Kids Programs532 postings
- 04Learning Care Group322 postings
- 05YMCA277 postings
- 06La Petite Academy192 postings
- 07Right At School170 postings
- 08Childtime Learning Centers148 postings
- 09Childcare Network99 postings
- 10Bright Horizons88 postings
- 11Hire Up Recruiting82 postings
- 12Children Of America76 postings
- 13Mathnasium70 postings
- 14American Family Insurance Group67 postings
- 15HCA Healthcare64 postings
- 16Adventist Health53 postings
- 17Alphabest Education51 postings
- 18Child Development Schools51 postings
- 19Intermountain Health46 postings
- 20New Horizon Academy45 postings
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