Preschool director and school principal are both building-leadership jobs, but they sit in different systems: a preschool or childcare director runs an early childhood program under state child care licensing, while a principal leads a kindergarten-through-secondary school inside the education system.
BLS counts them as two occupations, and the May 2025 national medians were $59,300 for directors (SOC 11-9031) versus $105,870 for K-12 education administrators including principals (SOC 11-9032).
How do the jobs differ?
The federal classifiers don't even file them in the same occupation.
BLS counts preschool and childcare directors under Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare (SOC 11-9031), while principals sit in Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary (SOC 11-9032).
The split tracks a real divide: one job runs an early childhood program licensed by a state child care agency; the other runs a K-12 school building inside an education system.
On the director side, BLS's duty list covers supervising teachers and childcare workers, hiring and training staff, providing professional development, setting and communicating policies, developing educational programs, meeting with parents and staff about progress, preparing budgets, and keeping facilities clean per state regulations.
Who the director answers to depends on the center's ownership.
At independently owned centers, directors follow the owner's guidelines — and sometimes the director is the owner.
At chains and franchises, the director must meet the parent organization's standards.
Head Start directors follow U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requirements.
The schedule follows the door.
Directors are on site while the center is open, may work early mornings and late evenings, and in large centers directors and assistant directors may stagger schedules so someone is always on site.
BLS says most preschool and childcare center directors work full time, some more than 40 hours a week.
The scale of the director's world is measurable too.
BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook counted about 91,900 preschool and childcare center directors in 2025: 72% in child daycare services, 10% in religious, grantmaking and civic organizations, 6% self-employed, 3% in private schools and 3% in local public schools.
| Preschool / childcare director | School principal | |
|---|---|---|
| BLS occupation | Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare (SOC 11-9031) | Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary (SOC 11-9032, includes principals) |
| Who sets the job's qualifications | State child care licensing agencies | Where a state certifies school administrators, a separate state rulebook, not covered by this page's research |
| National median pay, May 2025 | $59,300 a year | $105,870 a year |
For the building-level job in detail — settings, duties, requirements — the childcare director overview is the starting point.
Licensure: administrator license vs director credential
A center director's qualifications are the state's to set: the state child care licensing agency writes the director rule a licensed center operates under, and the routes run wider than a degree.
Texas, for example, accepts a CDA or Certified Child-Care Professional credential plus 6 college credit hours in management and at least two years of licensed-center experience as a director qualification for centers with 13 or more children (26 TAC 746.1015).
The requirement you actually face is the one your state's licensing agency writes today.
Two national credentials sit on top of state rules rather than replacing them.
The National Administrator Credential (NAC), offered by NECPA, is a 45-hour course for center directors organized into 10 competency sections, delivered on-site in 4-5 days or online.
Aim4Excellence, from the McCormick Institute, is an online National Director Credential of nine self-paced modules accepted by 28 state professional development systems.
One early childhood administrator chair does carry a federal education line.
A Head Start director hired after November 7, 2016 must have at least a baccalaureate degree plus experience supervising staff, in fiscal management and in administration (45 CFR 1302.91(b)).
That rule is in motion: an August 2026 proposed rule would remove the non-statutory staff qualification rules in 1302.91 — including those for Head Start directors, family child care providers, coaches, family service staff and health professionals — and it was not final as of October 5, 2026.
Administrator licensure is a different track, and the research for this page doesn't collect those rules or which office issues them.
If you're weighing the K-12 track, your state's educator certification or licensing office is the place that can say what your state requires of a principal.
Two state rulebooks, both subject to change
Pay comparison
The two medians answer the money question quickly.
In the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare (SOC 11-9031) — the occupation that covers preschool and childcare directors — had a national median of $59,300 a year across 73,660 wage-and-salary jobs.
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary (SOC 11-9032, which includes principals) had a national median of $105,870 in the same survey.
Same source, same year: the K-12 administration figure sits well above the early-childhood one, across two occupations BLS keeps separate — not two rungs of one ladder.
The director row spreads widely around its median.
In the same survey, the 10th percentile for the occupation sat at $38,580, the mean landed at $64,800 and the 90th percentile reached $98,240 — a distribution, not a pay scale any center posts.
Because OEWS counts wage-and-salary jobs, a self-employed owner-director's earnings stay outside these figures altogether.
Within the director occupation, setting moves the median.
The 4,680 directors employed by elementary and secondary schools had a median of $76,220, and the 980 directors in religious organizations a median of $63,590 — read those as one survey series compared across industries.
Directors drawn to a school-system paycheck have a route that stays inside early childhood: district and agency early learning leadership, the track district early childhood roles covers.
For the numbers behind the director median, the childcare director salary page carries the state-by-state medians.
Can a director become a principal?
There is no single ladder with both chairs on it — this is a cross-system move, not a step up one.
A director's qualifications live in child care licensing; a principal's certification, where a state applies one to school administrators, sits in a separate state rulebook.
The research for this page covers the child care side of that line and doesn't collect principal-certification rules — so don't assume a director credential converts.
Your state's educator certification or licensing office can say what your state actually requires.
What carries over is the operational core.
BLS lists business, communication, interpersonal, leadership and organizational skills as important qualities for center directors, and the daily work — supervising and developing staff, budgets, policies, family communication, the educational program itself — is building-level administration.
What changes is the rulebook the building sits in and the ages of the students in it.
There is also a route that stays inside early childhood for directors drawn to the school system: district and agency early learning leadership sits above individual centers and answers to a school system rather than a licensing agency.
For the full ladder from classroom to system roles, the director career path maps it.
Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Director qualification rules sit with your state child care licensing agency; principal certification, where a state applies one to school administrators, is a separate state rulebook this page doesn't cover. Confirm current rules with your state child care licensing agency and your state's educator certification or licensing office before you plan a move.