---
title: "Education and Childcare Administrator, Preschool and Daycare"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate academic or nonacademic activities of preschools or childcare centers and programs, including before- and after-school care."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-and-childcare-administrator-preschool-and-daycare"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Education and Childcare Administrator, Preschool and Daycare

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-9031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-9031.00

Plan, direct, or coordinate academic or nonacademic activities of preschools or childcare centers and programs, including before- and after-school care.

Also advertised as: Child Care Center Director; Child Care Director; Childcare Director; Day Care Director; Early Childhood Program Supervisor (ECP Supervisor); Early Childhood Services Director; Education Coordinator; Education Director.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $59,300 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $28.51/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $38,580 to $98,240, with the middle half between $47,040 and $75,500
- **Total US employment:** 73,660
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -3.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 5,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 73,660 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $38,580 |
| 25th | $47,040 |
| 50th (median) | $59,300 |
| 75th | $75,500 |
| 90th | $98,240 |
| Mean (average) | $64,800 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $96,810 | $89,705 | 3,950 |
| NJ | $78,770 | $72,396 | 2,900 |
| DC | $77,850 | $70,836 | 410 |
| AK | $75,540 | $73,799 | 60 |
| WA | $70,470 | $65,852 | 1,560 |
| MA | $70,320 | $66,492 | 2,260 |
| CA | $67,100 | $60,603 | 9,810 |
| HI | $65,080 | $59,190 | 260 |
| CO | $64,620 | $62,706 | 1,150 |
| SD | $63,240 | $71,388 | 150 |
| VT | $63,220 | $64,538 | 190 |
| MD | $62,520 | $59,566 | 1,270 |
| MN | $62,020 | $62,887 | 1,010 |
| UT | $60,980 | $61,681 | 400 |
| GA | $60,300 | $62,621 | 1,550 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-and-childcare-administrator-preschool-and-daycare/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/education-and-childcare-administrator-preschool-and-daycare.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 91,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 89,000 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 2,900 jobs, or -3.1%. Declining: -3.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 5,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Recruit, hire, train, and evaluate primary and supplemental staff and recommend personnel actions for programs and services.
- Confer with parents and staff to discuss educational activities and policies and students' behavioral or learning problems.
- Determine allocations of funds for staff, supplies, materials, and equipment and authorize purchases.
- Monitor students' progress and provide students and teachers with assistance in resolving any problems.
- Direct and coordinate activities of teachers or administrators at daycare centers, schools, public agencies, or institutions.
- 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.
- Set educational standards and goals and help establish policies, procedures, and programs to carry them out.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Enterprising (E), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 6.46 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.85 |
| C — Conventional | 4.53 |
| I — Investigative | 2.90 |
| A — Artistic | 2.78 |
| R — Realistic | 1.20 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 81.3 |
| ENFJ | 80.3 |
| ESFP | 72.0 |
| ENFP | 62.7 |
| ISFJ | 59.6 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ENFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Education Administrator, Kindergarten through Secondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-administrator-kindergarten-through-secondary) — median $105,870
- [Preschool Teacher, Except Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/preschool-teacher) — median $38,140
- [Social and Community Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-community-service-manager) — median $80,390
- [Special Education Teacher, Kindergarten](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-kindergarten) — median $67,170
- [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260
- [Kindergarten Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/kindergarten-teacher) — median $62,680
- [Health Education Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-education-specialist) — median $64,070
- [Instructional Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/instructional-coordinator) — median $77,440
- [Training and Development Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/training-and-development-manager) — median $133,000
- [Special Education Teacher, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/education-and-childcare-administrator-preschool-and-daycare