A child care center director oversees the day-to-day activities of a child care center. He or she is responsible for the smooth running of the care center. This person manages the curriculum and supervises all the physical facilities of the center.
A child care center must comply with the laws of the government. Only the child care director can enforce these regulations. This director also manages the financial aspect of the center so the facility will continue to run smoothly.
Before you can work as a child care center director, you need to possess at least a high school diploma. Some large organizations can demand an associate's or bachelor's degree. Besides, a background check will be required to complete the application process. Most importantly, you need to have a license as well. A child care center director earns $46,500 annually.
Child Care Center Director Overview
Working as a Child Care Center Director
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a child care center director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.99 an hour? That's $54,060 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 4,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Child Care Center Director Do
There are certain skills that many child care center directors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed business skills, interpersonal skills and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a child care center director, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.5% of child care center directors included patient care, while 12.7% of resumes included professional development, and 9.6% of resumes included child care. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the child care center director job title. But what industry to start with? Most child care center directors actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
How To Become a Child Care Center Director
If you're interested in becoming a child care center director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 33.2% of child care center directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 27.3% of child care center directors have master's degrees. Even though most child care center directors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a child care center director. When we researched the most common majors for a child care center director, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on child care center director resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a child care center director. In fact, many child care center director jobs require experience in a role such as teacher. Meanwhile, many child care center directors also have previous career experience in roles such as director or preschool teacher.
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Child Care Center Director Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of program director you might progress to a role such as executive director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title executive director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Child Care Center Director
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Job Juncture Director of Nursing Care Center Director of Nursing Care Center | Job Juncture Job Juncture | 12/29/2020 12/29/2020 | $72,00012/29/2020 $72,000 |
Affinity Search Director of Nursing Care Center Director of Nursing Care Center | Affinity Search Affinity Search | 12/29/2020 12/29/2020 | $72,00012/29/2020 $72,000 |
Laramie County Community College Director, Children's Discovery Center Director, Children's Discovery Center | Laramie County Community College Laramie County Community College | 12/22/2020 12/22/2020 | $72,63912/22/2020 $72,639 |
Job Juncture Director of Nursing Care Center Director of Nursing Care Center | Job Juncture Job Juncture | 07/30/2020 07/30/2020 | $72,00007/30/2020 $72,000 |
Affinity Director of Nursing Care Center Director of Nursing Care Center | Affinity Affinity | 03/10/2020 03/10/2020 | $72,00003/10/2020 $72,000 |
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Top Colleges for Child Care Center Directors
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
3. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
4. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
5. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
6. New York University
New York, NY • Private
7. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
8. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
9. University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA • Public
10. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
Top Skills For a Child Care Center Director
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.5% of child care center directors listed patient care on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
- Patient Care, 13.5%
- Professional Development, 12.7%
- Child Care, 9.6%
- Staff Members, 5.5%
- CPR, 5.0%
- Other Skills, 53.7% See All Child Care Center Director Skills