Qualifications & Educational Supports

What Are Qualifications and Educational Supports?

Qualifications and educational supports are policies and pathways that provide consistent standards and support for educators to achieve higher education.

Research is clear that early educators play a central role in facilitating learning and development among children from birth to age five.¹ However, a gap exists between the skills, knowledge, and experience needed to provide early care and education and the expectations established in state licensing and regulations as well as the actual levels of education the workforce has acquired.

In K-12 education, most states require that teachers obtain at least a bachelor’s degree plus a grade- or subject-specific certification, which is reflected in state teacher licensure requirements. In early care and education, most states have yet to implement consistent educational requirements, even though experts recommend that lead teachers and program administrators acquire degrees and specialization equivalent to those working in elementary schools. Likewise, early educators working in other roles, like assistant teachers or aides, are encouraged to attain foundational knowledge, such as a Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential.² Importantly, research and policy experts further recommend that the existing ECE workforce incur no expenses or debt to attain education and advance along a professional pathway, though sufficient educational supports have yet to materialize.³^. Nonetheless, the majority of the workforce has attended college, with 30 percent of center-based teaching staff and about 20 percent of home-based providers holding a bachelor’s degree or higher (see About the Early Childhood Workforce).

Currently, states vary widely with regard to the minimum qualification standards for directors, teachers, and assistant teachers, with many states requiring no minimum qualifications at all (see Figure 3.1.1). Qualification requirements become even more varied once specific ECE programs like state pre-K, Head Start, or Early Head Start are taken into account. These programs often have higher requirements than child care licensing, but they all differ from one another. As a result, educators face disparate expectations that depend more on the type of program setting and available funding than the knowledge and skills necessary to further children’s learning and development.

Figure 3.1.1.

Number of States With Minimum Qualification Requirements in Child Care Licensing, By Role

Across settings, the majority of early educators have some level of higher education.

Time and again, educators identify a desire to participate in more preparation and ongoing learning, but they often face barriers, particularly as working adults and many caring for their own families. Additional barriers exist for members of racial and ethnic communities who have historically and systemically been shut out of or sidelined from higher education.⁴ Yet educators also face disparate access to resources demonstrated to support success and remove barriers in completing higher education and training.⁵ ⁶ Such resources include: cohort models; flexible class schedules (e.g., classes at night, on weekends); community-located courses; academic counseling specific to early educators; and financial support for tuition, books, and other costs.⁷ T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® scholarship programs and alternative models linked to college education—for example, some early childhood apprenticeship programs—include nearly all of these supports as part of their framework.⁸For a state-by-state list of scholarship and apprenticeship programs, see Appendix 3 (apprenticeships are not assessed in the 2024 Index, however).

Key Issue

Developing Strategy: Apprenticeships

Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) have gained national attention in recent years as a professional development strategy. They offer an alternative career pathway for entry into or advancement in the ECE field and support educators in the attainment of a nationally recognized credential or degree. Every RAP must include:

An employer;
On-the-job training (e.g., a minimum of 2,000 hours or the equivalent of 12 months);
Related technical instruction (e.g., college courses in early childhood education);
Compensation increases for skill gains or milestone achievements; and
A portable, nationally recognized credential (e.g., CDA Credential, associate degree, bachelor’s degree).

According to a June 2023 report,¹ 35 states have apprenticeship programs active at a city, regional, or state level, and many states are developing new apprenticeship programs (see Appendix Table 3.3).

Recent Trends

Some apprenticeship programs are using T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® scholarships and other financial aid sources to help reduce employer costs and cover the cost of related technical instruction, such as tuition (Arkansas, Alabama, Vermont, Pennsylvania).
Offering pre-apprenticeships and/or youth apprenticeships creates another entry point to the ECE field. This approach provides young workers and individuals returning to work and/or college with an opportunity to complete coursework that then leads into an apprenticeship program or toward a college degree or permit/credential (California, Wisconsin).

Challenges

Misalignment exists among licensing, credentialing requirements, teacher preparation programs, and QRIS initiatives. Educators must navigate these systems and their various requirements.
Apprenticeship offers yet another system for educators to navigate and may be duplicative of similar existing professional development efforts if not coordinated with ECE governance bodies.
Apprenticeship programs must ensure courses articulate to degrees or further credentials to alleviate burdens on educators navigating higher education systems.
Federal, state, and local funding initiatives are often restrictive, offering more support for implementation and administration rather than direct support to apprentices (e.g., wages). One of the biggest challenges RAPs face is finding unrestricted funding so that programs can provide the raises and financial assistance apprentices require.

Opportunities

More research and comprehensive data is needed to understand the impact of apprenticeships in early care and education. As apprenticeships expand, different models should be evaluated to learn which communities they serve best, the extent to which these models improve access, and how they define and support equity.
Outcomes of apprenticeship programs are not well documented or publicly available. Attention should be paid to who is participating in apprenticeships (and who is not), as well as how effective they are in facilitating successful participation in education and job training and their impact on compensation.
Furthermore, a better understanding of the true cost of apprenticeship is needed for those administering these programs as well as for employers.

Despite their success, scholarship and apprenticeship programs for early educators are typically underfunded and available to only a portion of the workforce, allowing some to advance and potentially have access to higher paying jobs in the sector, while others are shut out of such opportunities. While the sector as a whole remains grossly underpaid, in some instances, attainment of a bachelor’s degree can unlock access to jobs that are on the upper end of the wage spectrum. For example, educators working in school-sponsored pre-K with a bachelor’s degree can earn as much as $27,600 more annually than their peers without a degree.⁹ For Black early educators in particular, access to a college education can have a profound impact on their well-being, although they are routinely paid less than their colleagues, even with the same levels of education (see Early Educator Pay). More robust data collection on the workforce as a whole, as well as who has access to which educational support programs and which jobs, is imperative to assess whether existing inequities in pay and opportunity are being disrupted or reinforced (see Workforce Data).

“I’ve been an FCC provider for 17 years. I don’t have a bachelor’s degree.... There have been roadblocks put in place that have made it difficult to obtain.”
Family Child Care Provider¹⁰

It is critical for all children, regardless of their age or where they receive early care and learning services, to have access to early educators who are well prepared and equitably compensated. Achieving this goal requires consistent qualification requirements that reflect both foundational and specialized knowledge, including a system to account for existing education, training, and experience and equitable access to resources that facilitate success in higher education and training.

Policy Solutions Diploma icon

Policy Solutions to Support Educational Pathways

Design equitable credential systems and align qualification requirements across settings.

Establish minimum requirements that reflect foundational knowledge (i.e., a Child Development Associate® Credential or equivalent) for all early childhood teaching staff.
Establish a bachelor’s degree with early childhood education specialization and individual licensure or certification for lead teachers and program leaders, in line with what is required for teachers of older children.
If these conditions are not met or publicly funded, neither individuals nor programs should be penalized for failing to meet qualifications that are only recommended and not required.
As new qualification requirements are implemented, develop an intentional strategy to provide dual support to the incoming workforce while also supporting the existing workforce to meet requirements. Effective policy strategies include valuing and accounting for years of experience and providing financial support and a flexible work schedule to acquire additional education, training, or certification within a reasonable timeline.

Ensure that all members of the current and future workforce have opportunities and support to acquire education and training at no personal financial cost.

Partner with educators to identify pathways and conditions that reflect their aspirations and needs.

Identify systemic barriers and develop equity-driven solutions to facilitate access and create the conditions for educators to successfully advance.

Design and fund specific strategies to facilitate the attainment of associate and bachelor’s degrees among historically oppressed racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals who speak English as a second language.
Regularly collect and review data about scholarship programs and other educational initiatives to identify disparities in access and to assess whether such programs are providing adequate levels of support.

Learn more about national recommendations to transform the ECE workforce by referring to the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council report Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation.²

State Progress on Qualifications & Educational Supports

Stalled: 9 states
Edging Forward: 42 states
Making Headway: 0 states
Not Available: 0 states
Not Applicable: 0 states

Overall, there has been little progress on qualifications and educational supports since the previous edition. While there are still no states making headway, the number of states edging forward increased from 38 to 42 between 2020 and 2024, and the number of stalled states dropped from eleven to nine. However, several of these gains are due to data availability changes, rather than improvements in policy.¹¹

Colorado improved from stalled to edging forward due to changes in how their scholarship program is funded, allowing the program to be assessed in 2024.
In contrast, Oklahoma slipped from edging forward to stalled due to a reduction in the types of scholarships they support: Oklahoma offers scholarships for a Child Development Associate® Credential or equivalent, whereas in 2020, their program also supported attainment of an associate and bachelor’s degree.

Most progress was related to improvements to scholarship programs. Nearly all states (48) and the District of Columbia offer one or more scholarship programs for early educators, with the exception of Mississippi and North Dakota. Fourteen states added new scholarship programs since 2020 (Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont).¹² Many states utilized pandemic relief funding to bolster, expand, and/or maintain scholarship programs, but with these funds being discontinued in 2024, the impact of their loss remains to be seen.¹³

In contrast, there were few advancements in minimum qualification requirements. Overall, no state sets the bachelor's degree as a requirement for lead educators across all ECE settings (pre-K, center- and home-based licensed child care programs)—a trend that has continued since the first Index in 2016. Only Delaware and the District of Columbia require a bachelor's degree for center directors.

State Spotlight

Washington Sets Consistent Standards for Educational Requirements, Provides Funding and Support

Washington State made outstanding progress on their minimum qualification requirements by changing their licensing rules to require an initial ECE certificate or equivalent, such as the CDA Credential, as a minimum for all early educators to work in center- or home-based programs. Educators currently working in the field have until 2026 to complete the requirements. Additionally, Washington’s Early Achievers Grant supports educators to complete such certifications, providing critical financial support for educators who need to meet this new requirement.

Table 3.1.1.

Key to State Progress on Qualifications and Educational Supports

Figure 3.1.2.

Map of State Progress on Qualifications and Educational Supports, 2024

Figure 3.1.3.

Number of States Making Progress on Qualifications and Educational Supports, 2020 and 2024

Figure 3.1.4.

Number of States Making Progress on Qualifications and Educational Supports per Indicator, 2020 and 2024: Minimum Qualifications, By Role

Figure 3.1.5.

Number of States Making Progress on Qualifications and Educational Supports per Indicator, 2020 and 2024: Scholarships

State Progress on Qualifications and Educational Supports: Indicators

Indicator 1: Does the state require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for lead teachers and a minimum of a CDA or equivalent for assistant teachers in public pre-K programs?

Rationale: The 50 states and the District of Columbia each set their own qualification standards for early educators, and those requirements vary widely, not only across states, but within states according to setting and source of funding.¹⁴ Programs that receive public pre-K funding are typically governed by a distinct (and higher) set of standards compared with programs that are licensed to provide child care; however, this approach maintains a false distinction between early education and child care. We assess whether lead teachers are required to hold a bachelor’s degree and assistant teachers a Child Development Associate¹⁵ Credential or equivalent, across settings and funding streams.

Current Status Across States: Of the 45 states (plus the District of Columbia) with public pre-K programs, 24 states require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for lead pre-K teachers across all settings and across all programs (for states with more than one state-funded pre-K program).¹⁶ An additional 17 states require a bachelor’s degree for pre-K teachers, but only for certain types of classrooms or settings within the pre-K system, such as public schools.¹⁷ For assistant teachers, 13 states require a minimum of a CDA or equivalent across all settings and programs.¹⁸

Change Over Time: Since 2020, both the total number of states with public pre-K programs that require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for lead pre-K teachers across all programs (24) and the total number of states with public pre-K programs that require a minimum of a CDA or equivalent for assistant teachers across all programs (13) remains unchanged. Alaska and Illinois now require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for all lead pre-K teachers, but did not in 2020, whereas Louisiana and North Dakota met this criteria in 2020, but no longer do. For assistant teachers, Iowa and North Carolina joined other states that require a CDA or equivalent credential, whereas two other states, Missouri and Washington, no longer require a CDA or equivalent credential for all assistant pre-K teachers.

Indicator 2: Does the state set minimum qualification levels for center-based settings outside of publicly funded pre-K at a bachelor’s degree for center directors and teachers and a CDA or equivalent for assistant teachers?

Rationale: Child care licensing rules typically establish lower expectations for early educators working in non-pre-K center-based programs compared with educators working in funded pre-K settings, in stark contrast to research recommendations about what educators need to know to work with children, regardless of age of children or setting. We assess whether qualification requirements meet the same expert recommendations across settings and funding streams (i.e., whether center administrators and lead teachers are required to have a bachelor’s degree and assistant teachers, a CDA or equivalent).¹⁹

Current Status Across States: Only Delaware and the District of Columbia require center directors to have a bachelor’s degree. No states require lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree in non-pre-K center-based programs, and only two states (Pennsylvania and Illinois) and the District of Columbia require an associate degree for lead teachers in such programs. Four states (Hawaii, Nevada, Minnesota, and Washington) and the District of Columbia require assistant teachers in such center-based programs to have a CDA or equivalent. Across states, the requirements for center directors and teachers vary substantially, with some states setting no minimum qualification requirements at all (see Figure 3.1.1 and Appendix Table 3.1.)

Change Over Time: Since 2020, there has been no change in the states that require a bachelor's degree for center directors (Delaware and the District of Columbia) or for center-based lead teachers (no states). For assistant teachers, in 2024 Washington joins three states (Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada)²⁰ and the District of Columbia where assistant teachers must have a CDA or equivalent. This change is part of a broader shift in licensing requirements in Washington State: for all early educators in licensed child care settings, Washington now requires a minimum of a CDA or equivalent by 2026.

Indicator 3: Does the state require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree for licensed home-based providers and a minimum of a CDA or equivalent for assistant teachers in home-based programs?

Rationale: Child care licensing rules often establish lower expectations for early educators in home-based settings compared with educators in center-based settings or in public pre-K. These different standards perpetuate disparities in children’s access to a qualified teacher during their formative years. We assess whether qualification requirements meet the same expert recommendations across settings and funding streams (i.e., whether administrators and lead teachers are required to have a bachelor’s degree, and assistant teachers, a CDA or equivalent).

Current Status Across States: Not a single state requires a bachelor’s degree for home-based providers, and only the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Nevada, and Washington require at least a CDA or equivalent for assistant teachers in home-based programs. States are less likely to require any minimum qualifications for teaching staff in home-based programs than in center-based programs (see Figure 3.1.1 and Appendix Table 3.1).

Change Over Time: Since 2020, there has been no change in the states that require a bachelor's degree for licensed home-based providers; no states met this requirement in 2020 nor in 2024. Two additional states (Nevada and Washington) join the District of Columbia and Hawaii as the only states that require a minimum of a CDA or equivalent for assistant teachers in home-based settings.²¹

Indicator 4: Does the state have a scholarship to support educational attainment pathways from a CDA or equivalent to associate and bachelor’s degrees?

Rationale: Academic and financial supports have been demonstrated to facilitate degree attainment among early educators. These supports include cohort models, flexible class schedules (e.g., classes at night, on weekends), and academic counseling, in addition to financial support for tuition, books, and other costs. We assess whether states have scholarship programs to support educational pathways for early educators to achieve foundational knowledge (a Child Development Associate® Credential or equivalent) and to achieve higher education (associate and bachelor’s degrees).

Current Status Across States: In all, 48 states and the District of Columbia have at least one scholarship program for early educators that supports one or more types of education or credentials; 20 states and the District of Columbia have multiple scholarship programs; 43 states have scholarships for bachelor’s degrees; 45 states have scholarships that support the attainment of an associate degree; and 44 states have scholarships that support the attainment of a CDA or equivalent. Overall, 37 states and the District of Columbia have scholarships for all three levels of educational attainment. Scholarship programs in many states support additional types of education and credentials such as a master’s degree or director credential. For more information on the types of scholarships included in each state’s programs, see Appendix Table 3.2.

Change Over Time: Since 2020, there was an overall increase of one state supporting attainment of bachelor's degrees, no change in the number of states supporting the attainment of associate degrees, and an overall increase of four states supporting the attainment of CDA or equivalent credentials (see Figure 3.1.5).

Arkansas expanded their scholarship program to include a pathway for early educators to achieve bachelor’s degrees, and three states (Maryland, Nebraska, Rhode Island) expanded their scholarship programs to include pathways for early educators to achieve a CDA or equivalent, in addition to an associate degree and bachelor's degree. South Dakota added a new scholarship program that supports a CDA or equivalent, whereas there was no identified scholarship program in the state in 2020. Additionally, Colorado’s T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® program, which includes scholarships for the CDA or equivalent credential and associate and bachelor’s degrees, was newly included in our 2024 Index,²² while California added two new scholarship programs that meet Index criteria and provide support for the associate and bachelor’s degrees.

In contrast, scholarship programs in Delaware and Oklahoma no longer support pathways to an associate degree and bachelor’s degree; as of the 2024 Index, support was limited to a CDA or equivalent. North Dakota previously had a scholarship for a CDA, but no longer offers this program.

Indicator 5: Does a state collect data on scholarship recipients?

Rationale: To ensure equity in access to scholarship programs, states should collect data on scholarship recipients, their outcomes (e.g., degree attainment), and their trajectory in the ECE field. By collecting this information, states can assess which communities do not have access to scholarships and whether this situation is changing over time, then adapt their outreach and engagement strategies accordingly. Additionally, collecting data on scholarship recipients is important for articulating the level of funds needed to adequately support the ECE workforce, similar to the need for better data on the workforce more generally (see Workforce Data).

Current Status Across States: Of the 49 states with scholarship programs, 47 states collect at least some data on their scholarship recipients, but what is collected varies widely. For examples of scholarship recipient data that include education levels and demographics, see the T.E.A.C.H. National Center’s Compendium of T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® & Child Care WAGE$® State Profiles.²³

Change Over Time: Since 2020, there was an overall increase of six states with scholarship programs that collect at least some data on their scholarship recipients. North Dakota previously collected data for its CDA scholarship, but no longer offers this program. In contrast, seven additional states reported that some data on their scholarship recipients is being collected. For four of these states (Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, and West Virginia), we did not have information to assess whether they collected data on scholarship recipients in 2020, but in 2024, we were able to confirm that these states do collect data on scholarship recipients.²⁴ California, Colorado, and South Dakota did not have scholarship programs that met our criteria in 2020, but do in 2024, and all collect data on scholarship recipients.

An educator at the front of a classroom instructing children.

Table 3.1.2.

Progress on Qualifications and Educational Supports, By State and Territory, 2024

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State Policies to Improve Early Childhood Educator Jobs