What does a day care director do?
Day care director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real day care director resumes:
- Manage curriculum along with school budget, accounts receivable and payables.
- Attend annual and semi annual ISP meetings
- Work on daily outcomes up to and including ADL and ILS skills.
- Monitor and facilitate employee trainings, annual TB records, attend ISP meetings, process and approve payroll.
- Assist participants with ADL's, Dr.s appointments and other appointments to enhance the participants overall quality of life.
- Complete bi-weekly payroll requirements for program staff.
- Process payroll and perform various administrative/clerical duties as needed.
- Read management and leadership materials and program-relate materials to keep abreast of developments in comprehensive early childhood programs.
- Develop FTE, operational, and capital budgets maintaining the organizations' strategic goals.
Day care director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 33% of Day Care Directors are proficient in Patients, Direct Care, and CPR. They’re also known for soft skills such as Business skills, Leadership skills, and Organizational skills.
We break down the percentage of Day Care Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 33%
Supported the patients and their family as needed in regulatory affairs
- Direct Care, 13%
Provide Direct Care to clients with disability.
- CPR, 9%
Provided CPR training and administered medication.
- Quality Care, 6%
Direct person center planning meetings with all staff and family members involved to ensure quality care for each individual.
- Social Work, 5%
Coordinated with program social worker to establish and pursue therapeutic goals for children and families as needed.
- Kids, 5%
Supervised kids with learning disabilities.
"patients," "direct care," and "cpr" are among the most common skills that day care directors use at work. You can find even more day care director responsibilities below, including:
Business skills. The most essential soft skill for a day care director to carry out their responsibilities is business skills. This skill is important for the role because "preschool and childcare center directors manage childcare centers and need to be able to operate the business effectively." Additionally, a day care director resume shows how their duties depend on business skills: "handle business accounting;payroll, taxesand bookkeeping. "
Leadership skills. Another essential skill to perform day care director duties is leadership skills. Day care directors responsibilities require that "preschool and childcare center directors need leadership skills to supervise staff and inspire diligence." Day care directors also use leadership skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "provide leadership to youth sports and teen coordinator, oversee marketing and fiscal management in these departments. "
Organizational skills. This is an important skill for day care directors to perform their duties. For an example of how day care director responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "directors need to maintain clear records about children and staff." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a day care director: "program development and organizational management in all aspects of renal disease operations. ".
Communication skills. A big part of what day care directors do relies on "communication skills." You can see how essential it is to day care director responsibilities because "directors inform parents and staff about the children’s progress." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical day care director tasks: "conduct parent conferences, and maintains positive relationships and effective communication with parents. "
The three companies that hire the most day care directors are:
- RWJBarnabas Health8 day care directors jobs
- CARE6 day care directors jobs
- Prime Healthcare4 day care directors jobs
Compare different day care directors
Day care director vs. Education site manager
A test center administrator is responsible for overseeing the daily operations at test centers, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. They typically set goals, establish guidelines and timelines, liaise with external partners such as vendors at suppliers, coordinate staff, monitor the progress of all operations, and address issues and concerns, resolving them promptly and efficiently. Moreover, as a test center administrator, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a day care director are more likely to require skills like "patients," "direct care," "cpr," and "home health." On the other hand, a job as an education site manager requires skills like "coordinators," "social services," "course content," and "professional development programs." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that education site managers earn slightly differ from day care directors. In particular, education site managers are 15.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a day care director. Additionally, they're 0.8% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Day care director vs. Early childhood development manager
A day manager oversees the daily operations of an organization, ensuring everything runs smoothly and efficiently according to company standards and regulations. As a day manager, it is their duty to set priorities and goals, establish timelines and guidelines, manage budgets, delegate responsibilities among teams, and supervise staff performances, solving issues or concerns when any arise. They are also responsible for coordinating with night workers or managers, developing reports as necessary. Moreover, they lead staff to reach goals and implement company regulations and policies.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that day care director responsibilities requires skills like "patients," "direct care," "home health," and "quality care." But an early childhood development manager might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "technical assistance," "child development," "early childhood development," and "ecd."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Early childhood development managers tend to reach higher levels of education than day care directors. In fact, they're 10.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Day care director vs. Test center administrator
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from day care director resumes include skills like "patients," "direct care," "cpr," and "home health," whereas a test center administrator is more likely to list skills in "computer software," "corporate management," "strong customer service," and "candidate identification. "
Most test center administrators achieve a similar degree level compared to day care directors. For example, they're 4.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Day care director vs. Day manager
Types of day care director
Updated January 8, 2025
