Obviously working with and for children, a child care director manages the staff at a child care center. They guide and support teaching staff and create an environment where children and parents will feel safe, secure, and well-taught.
As a child care director, one must have great business skills to understand consumer behaviors and use this understanding to make the business or venture successful. Another essential skills are organization skills which include being able to work efficiently while keeping a clean workspace. Lastly, the most important skills are leadership skills since a child care director works with other people.
A college degree is not needed to become a child care director. Most child care directors have one, but the more important aspect is the set of skills one possesses.
With an average salary of $45,160 and a job growth rate of 7%, it is not bad to apply for this job in the current time. Starting as a child care director can lead to become an executive director in the future.
What is a Child Care Director?
What Does a Child Care Director Do
There are certain skills that many child care 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, organizational skills and leadership skills.
How To Become a Child Care Director
If you're interested in becoming a child care director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 56.3% of child care directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.2% of child care directors have master's degrees. Even though most child care directors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Child Care 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.
Average Salary for a Child Care Director
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Child Care Directors
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
3. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
4. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
5. University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA • Private
6. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
7. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
8. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
9. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
10. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Private
Top Skills For a Child Care 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, 14.4% of child care directors listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and organizational skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Child Care Director Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Child Care Director templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Child Care Director resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Child Care Director Demographics
Child Care Director Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among child care directors, 83.1% of them are women, while 16.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among child care directors is White, which makes up 69.0% of all child care directors.
- The most common foreign language among child care directors is Spanish at 73.9%.
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Best States For a Child Care Director
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a child care director. The best states for people in this position are Pennsylvania, Delaware, Nevada, and Rhode Island. Child care directors make the most in Pennsylvania with an average salary of $49,741. Whereas in Delaware and Nevada, they would average $49,711 and $49,709, respectively. While child care directors would only make an average of $48,095 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Nevada
$49,709
Avg. Salary
2. Arizona
$44,243
Avg. Salary
3. Delaware
$49,711
Avg. Salary
How Do Child Care Director Rate Their Jobs?
Top Child Care Director Employers
Most Common Employers For Child Care Director
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vision Quest | $40,638 | $19.54 | 10 |
| 2 | East Boston Social Centers | $33,033 | $15.88 | 4 |
| 3 | Boys & Girls Clubs of America | $30,589 | $14.71 | 4 |
| 4 | Bright Horizons | $28,871 | $13.88 | 8 |
| 5 | KinderCare Education | $28,776 | $13.83 | 4 |
| 6 | South Suburban Parks and Recreation | $28,564 | $13.73 | 4 |
| 7 | Step By Step | $27,947 | $13.44 | 5 |
| 8 | The Salvation Army | $27,587 | $13.26 | 8 |
| 9 | VillaSport Athletic Club and Spa | $27,202 | $13.08 | 5 |
| 10 | Ymca Of Middle Tennessee | $25,614 | $12.31 | 5 |
Child Care Director Videos
