How to hire a child life specialist

Child life specialist hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring child life specialists in the United States:

In the United States, the median cost per hire a child life specialist is $1,633.
It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
Human Resources use 15% of their expenses on recruitment on average.
On average, it takes around 12 weeks for a new child life specialist to become settled and show total productivity levels at work.

How to hire a child life specialist, step by step

To hire a child life specialist, you should create an ideal candidate profile, determine a budget, and post and promote your job. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a child life specialist:

Here's a step-by-step child life specialist hiring guide:

Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
Step 3: Make a budget
Step 4: Write a child life specialist job description
Step 5: Post your job
Step 6: Interview candidates
Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new child life specialist
Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a child life specialist do?

The job of a child life specialist is to help children and their families navigate the process of injury, illness, trauma, hospitalization, and disability. These health care professionals perform varied duties that include helping children and their families better understand the procedure and process of their medical experience. They also work on developing strategies to lessen the trauma and improve their understanding of a diagnosis by providing support, guidance, and information to family members. They are also expected to work closely with other members of the health care team in coordinating and managing care.

Learn more about the specifics of what a child life specialist does

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Identify your hiring needs

First, determine the employments status of the child life specialist you need to hire. Certain child life specialist roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

Determine employee vs contractor status

Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a child life specialist to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a child life specialist that fits the bill.

This list shows salaries for various types of child life specialists.

Type of Child Life Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
Child Life Specialist	Social and human service assistants provide client services, including support for families, in a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, and social work. They assist other workers, such as social workers, and they help clients find benefits or community services.	$14-46
Case Worker	Caseworkers are social workers who watch over the welfare of underprivileged individuals and at-risk families by counseling and providing them with assistance. Usually employed under the government or a local non-profit organization, a caseworker must conduct a thorough interview and house visits to determine the needs of the family... Show more	$14-26
Service Counselor	Service counselors provide guidance to couples, individuals, groups, and families who are going through issues that influence their well-being and mental health. They comprehensively approach their clients by utilizing a "wellness" model that focuses on and motivate the client's potentials... Show more	$11-24

Create an ideal candidate profile
Common skills:
- Patients
- Child Development
- Patient Care
- Child Life Services
- Social Work
- CCLS
- Therapeutic Play
- Emotional Support
- CPR
- Therapeutic Interventions
- Medical Procedures
- Surgery
- Mental Health
- Medical Play
Check all skills
Responsibilities:
- Observe activities and respond accordingly including emergency situations such as evacuation, CPR, or first aid.
- Experience working with kids diagnose with bipolar, schizophrenia, autism, ADHD, depression among other disorders.
- Provide valuable technical assistance to early childhood educators seeking resources on developing quality childcare environment.
- Detail knowledge of Medicare and Medicaid programs.
- Compile monthly statistical data on ADL caseload progress.
- Exhibit patience, care, and compassion towards others.
More child life specialist duties

Make a budget

Including a salary range in your child life specialist job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A child life specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

For example, the average salary for a child life specialist in Iowa may be lower than in California, and an entry-level child life specialist usually earns less than a senior-level child life specialist. Additionally, a child life specialist with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

Average child life specialist salary

$55,201yearly

$26.54 hourly rate

Entry-level child life specialist salary

$31,000 yearly salary

Updated December 11, 2025

Average child life specialist salary by state

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	California	$77,309	$37
2	New York	$65,231	$31
3	Illinois	$60,707	$29
4	New Jersey	$60,346	$29
5	Minnesota	$58,257	$28
6	Maryland	$55,808	$27
7	Virginia	$55,736	$27
8	Michigan	$55,175	$27
9	Florida	$55,057	$26
10	Massachusetts	$54,282	$26
11	Pennsylvania	$54,253	$26
12	Texas	$53,722	$26
13	Arizona	$53,239	$26
14	North Carolina	$52,595	$25
15	Oregon	$52,277	$25
16	Missouri	$51,223	$25
17	Washington	$51,066	$25
18	Wisconsin	$50,646	$24
19	Indiana	$49,568	$24
20	Tennessee	$48,372	$23

Average child life specialist salary by company

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
1	L.E.K. Consulting	$156,620	$75.30
2	Hawaii Pacific Health	$93,533	$44.97	9
3	Accenture	$86,779	$41.72	110
4	Roswell Park	$85,794	$41.25
5	UMass Memorial Health	$85,239	$40.98	39
6	Massachusetts General Hospital	$83,388	$40.09
7	UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital	$81,720	$39.29
8	Children's Hospital Colorado	$75,625	$36.36	4
9	Children's National Medical Center	$74,973	$36.04	10
10	Children's Minnesota	$73,768	$35.47	15
11	Sutter Health	$73,334	$35.26	13
12	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital	$71,251	$34.26	2
13	Elizabeth Seton Children's	$70,703	$33.99
14	Baystate Health	$70,151	$33.73	6
15	Southcoast Health	$69,697	$33.51	1
16	Children's Hospital Los Angeles	$69,186	$33.26	4
17	University of Maryland Medical System	$68,854	$33.10	27
18	St. Joseph Healthcare	$67,694	$32.55	4
19	Mount Sinai Health System	$67,049	$32.24	9
20	Connecticut Children's Medical Center	$67,009	$32.22	8

Writing a child life specialist job description
A job description for a child life specialist role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a child life specialist job description:
Child life specialist job description example
- Bachelors or Master s Degree with area of concentration: Child Life, Child Development Education, Creative Arts Therapies, etc.
- Completed 600 hour Child Life Internship and child life certification exam eligible
- Experience in Health Care setting. Prefer one-year experience in a Child Life Program setting.
- Coursework in Child Life, Human Development, Family Dynamics, Psychology, Sociology, Counseling, Therapeutic Recreation, and/or Expressive Therapies preferred.
- Child life Certification preferred or required within one year of hire
First established in 1901, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center is a 665-bed quaternary care, teaching hospital that provides comprehensive health care for the region. Staffed with more than 800 physicians, 3200 employees, and 150 volunteers, our hospital is ready to provide you and your family with the quality care you need. At Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, we are committed to quality and excellence in patient care. Our goal is to exceed your expectations and to provide you with an environment that is conducive to healing and promotes patient safety. The Newark Beth Israel Medical Center management and staff abide by the philosophy that all patients are to be treated with respect, dignity, and sensitivity.

RWJBarnabas Health is the most comprehensive health care delivery system in New Jersey and the state s second largest private employer with more than 32,000 employees, 9,000 physicians and 1,000 residents and interns. The system includes eleven acute care hospitals, three acute care children s hospitals and a leading pediatric rehabilitation hospital (Children s Specialized Hospital).

We offer a great work environment, competitive rates and excellent benefits, including:

Medical/Dental/Vision plans

401 (k)

Vacation/Personal/Holiday/Sick Time Off

Short & Long Term Disability

Basic Life & Accidental Death Insurance

Tuition Reimbursement

Health Care/Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Post your job
To find the right child life specialist for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:
- Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
- Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with child life specialists they would recommend.
- Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit child life specialists who meet your education requirements.
- Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.
Post your job online:
- Post your child life specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit child life specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
- Use field-specific websites.
- Post a job on free websites.
Interview candidates
Your first interview with child life specialist candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.
It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Send a job offer and onboard your new child life specialist
Once you've decided on a perfect child life specialist candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.
It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.
To prepare for the new child life specialist first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.
Go through the hiring process checklist
- Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
- Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
- Define job responsibilities and requirements
- Establish budget and timeline
- Determine hiring decision makers for the role
- Write job description
- Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
- Promote the job internally
- Process applications through applicant tracking system
- Review resumes and cover letters
- Shortlist candidates for screening
- Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
- Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
- Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
- Conduct background checks on top candidates
- Check references of top candidates
- Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
- Extend offer to top candidate(s)
- Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
- Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
- Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
- Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a child life specialist?

Recruiting child life specialists involves both the one-time costs of hiring and the ongoing costs of adding a new employee to your team. Your spending during the hiring process will mostly be on things like promoting the job on job boards, reviewing and interviewing candidates, and onboarding the new hire. Ongoing costs will obviously involve the employee's salary, but also may include things like benefits.

Child life specialists earn a median yearly salary is $55,201 a year in the US. However, if you're looking to find child life specialists for hire on a contract or per-project basis, hourly rates typically range between $14 and $46.

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Hiring child life specialists FAQs

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Updated December 11, 2025

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How to hire a child life specialist