Job Market for Certified Child Care Administration

Job Duties

What does a child care administrator do? As a child care administrator, you’ll be responsible for all operational aspects of child care centers and preschools. Your goal will be to help kids successfully move from one developmental stage to the next. (And have fun doing it.) With your training completed, you’ll be able to do all of the following… with confidence.

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  Nurture the emotional, physical, intellectual, and social development of children.

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  Develop and implement education programs and institutional policies.

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  Hire, train, supervise, and provide professional development for employees.

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  Ensure compliance with legal requirements, codes, and regulations.

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  Facilitate communication between parents, children, teachers, and staff.

Work Environment

Being a child care administrator is a great career choice because there are so many job options. You can work at home or away from home. You can work full time or part-time and make this a side gig for extra income. You can work for others in child care centers, preschools, or any early childhood education (ECE) facility. And you can work for yourself. (29% of child care administrators are self employed.) You can operate a childcare facility of your own, be an elite nanny or anything in between.

Pay Scale

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median annual salary for preschool and childcare center directors is $47,940. That works out to $23.05 per hour. (Median salary means that half the workers in an occupation earned more than this amount and half earned less.) The lowest 10 percent in this field earned less than $30,900, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $83,730. How much does a daycare owner make? It’s hard to say. You can use these salary numbers as a rough guide. But it’s possible to exceed these earnings by building and scaling a thriving business. The sky’s the limit for hard-working, innovative entrepreneurs (who have a genuine love of children).  

Industry Demand

Childcare administration jobs are on the rise, driven by tremendous need right now for quality child care nationwide. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that over 27,700 new jobs will be available by
2026.* The prospects are especially good for job candidates with child care training and certification.