How to hire a parent educator

How to hire a parent educator, step by step

Here's a step-by-step parent educator hiring guide:

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

What does a parent educator do?

Post a parent educator job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the parent educator you need to hire. Certain parent educator 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?

   Yes

   No

   A parent educator's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, parent educators from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of parent educators.

   Type of Parent Educator	Description	Hourly rate
   Parent Educator	Preschool and childcare center directors supervise and lead staffs, oversee daily activities, design curriculums, and prepare budgets. They are responsible for all aspects of their center’s program.	$13-25
   Family Services Coordinator	A family services coordinator maintains quantitative quality and qualitative quality monitoring systems and improvement systems for the program strategies to get executed with quality, fidelity, and reliability. They coach and offer supervisory guidance services to the family service team to keep the staff capacity robust and move the staff members towards mastering the core competencies... Show more	$15-26
   Site Director	A site director is in charge of delegating tasks to supervisors, and overseeing all construction operations, implementing all safety policies and regulations to ensure a safe and productive work environment for all employees. They are also primarily responsible for coordinating with architects and clients, reporting progress or any issues to them, negotiating contracts, and even deciding on workforce and suppliers... Show more	$10-40

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Child Development
   • Social Work
   • Community Resources
   • Mental Health
   • Family Support
   • Child Abuse
   • Kindergarten
   • Children Birth
   • Community Agencies
   • CPR
   • Social Services
   • Support Services
   • Parent-Child Interaction
   • Community Outreach

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Provide assistance for patients navigating government and community agencies.
   • Provide and assist in a variety of parenting classes, including CPR and health classes.
   • Develop courses, and provide training for infant CPR and newborn care for expectant parents.
   • Maintain effective verbal and written communication with clients, DCS case managers, teachers, adjustment councilors, and probation officers.
   • Support parents throughout pregnancy until their children enter kindergarten.
   • Advocate and encourage community coalition to support at-risk families.

   More parent educator duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your parent educator job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A parent educator salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, parent educators' average salary in oklahoma is 35% less than in rhode island.
   • Seniority. Entry-level parent educators earn 46% less than senior-level parent educators.
   • Certifications. A parent educator with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a parent educator's salary.

   Average parent educator salary

   $38,992yearly

   $18.75 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level parent educator salary

   $28,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average parent educator salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Pennsylvania	$47,122	$23
   2	Rhode Island	$47,088	$23
   3	Massachusetts	$46,594	$22
   4	Oregon	$45,306	$22
   5	New York	$42,975	$21
   6	Ohio	$42,927	$21
   7	California	$42,189	$20
   8	Arizona	$41,603	$20
   9	Connecticut	$41,499	$20
   10	New Jersey	$40,047	$19
   11	Iowa	$38,521	$19
   12	Florida	$38,421	$18
   13	Illinois	$37,704	$18
   14	Wisconsin	$36,762	$18
   15	Missouri	$36,012	$17
   16	Texas	$35,830	$17
   17	Louisiana	$35,266	$17
   18	South Carolina	$34,926	$17
   19	Minnesota	$34,488	$17
   20	Colorado	$34,229	$16

   Average parent educator salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Easterseals	$45,505	$21.88
   2	Travis County	$45,225	$21.74
   3	Oregon Health & Science University	$44,439	$21.36
   4	Family & Children's Agency	$43,046	$20.70
   5	Chicago Public Schools	$43,033	$20.69
   6	Montgomery County Public Schools	$42,981	$20.66
   7	EastHartford Schools	$41,857	$20.12
   8	Astor Services	$41,077	$19.75
   9	Broward County Public Schools	$40,868	$19.65
   10	Catholic Charities Health and Human Services	$40,665	$19.55
   11	Touro College	$40,579	$19.51	1
   12	Chinese American Service League	$39,846	$19.16
   13	Arizonas Children Association	$39,149	$18.82	1
   14	Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County	$38,984	$18.74	1
   15	Catholic Charities of Buffalo	$38,957	$18.73
   16	Council For The Spanish Speaking, Inc.	$38,926	$18.71
   17	S A F E Inc	$38,689	$18.60
   18	Illinois Action for Children	$38,190	$18.36
   19	East Bay Community Action Program	$38,140	$18.34
   20	Valley Health System	$38,123	$18.33

4. Writing a parent educator job description

   A job description for a parent educator 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 parent educator job description:

   Parent educator job description example

   Office Location : 4411 Montgomery Road

   Services will be provided in Hamilton County

   Required Degree(s): An Associate’s Degree in, Child Development, Early Childhood Education, Social Work, Criminal Justice or related field and a minimum of 2 years relevant experience working with families engaged in child welfare services.

   We are seeking a full time Home Visitor to provide Parent Education to at risk families in Hamilton County, specifically referred through the Department of Jobs and Family Services.

   Through this program, the Parent Educators work to assist families identified as high risk by the County in an effort to target specific and individualized parenting skills. These services are tailored to each family and designed to increase protective factors and improve parenting skills in families.

   Primary job responsibilities include:

   Provide weekly individual, family and group mental health Medicaid billable and case management services to high risk families.

   The focus of this service is on providing parents and caregivers with knowledge, modeling, and in-home mental health services that assist them with managing the mental health needs of the children living in their home or currently in out of home care.

   Services are provided primarily in the parent/caregiver’s home setting and also in the community. Create and maintain individual family goals through participation of the parents and County JFS worker. Create Individual Treatment Plans (ITPs) with clients and their families, where applicable.

   Link clients with community resources and effectively collaborate with school or community professionals, DJFS staff and other service providers.

   Child Focus provides excellent benefits

   Competitive salaries with mid-year and annual bonus opportunities

   Paid Time Off awards and Extended Illness Bank

   Flexible work schedules

   Energetic and supportive team environment

   Room for growth and advancement opportunity

   Individual and group supervision for dependently licensed staff (LSW, LPC, MFT)

   Trainings provided at no cost to staff (approved provider of CEU's)

   Company Car program and mileage reimbursement

   Generous matching program for 403(b) and Health Saving Accounts

   Approved agency for the Government Loan Forgiveness program and tuition reimbursement

   Medical, Vision, Dental insurance

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find parent educators for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any parent educators they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level parent educators with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find parent educator candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as k12jobspot, learn4good, serious teachers, teachingjobs.com.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting parent educators requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new parent educator

   Once you have selected a candidate for the parent educator position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new parent educator. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. 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.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

How much does it cost to hire a parent educator?