Sometimes — it depends on the state and on the job you're taking.
BLS says a bachelor's degree and experience in early childhood education are typically required to become a preschool or childcare center director, but requirements vary.
Where states set their own director rules, they range from a high school diploma plus credits or a credential up to a bachelor's degree.
Here's how that breaks down for directors and daycare owners.
Short answer: it depends on the state
There are two answers, and they come from two different places.
The first is BLS's description of the occupation: a bachelor's degree and experience in early childhood education are typically required to become a preschool or childcare center director, and BLS's typical entry-level education for the role is a bachelor's degree.
The second is the one that actually governs: where a state sets director qualification rules, its child care licensing agency writes them, and the state rulebooks documented in our research range from a high school diploma plus credits or a credential at the floor up to a bachelor's degree, depending on the state.
The gap between those two answers is the reason this page exists.
BLS's profile is a statistical picture of how people prepare for the occupation as a whole.
A state rulebook names the specific education, credits, credentials and experience that qualify a person to direct a licensed center in that state.
Both matter to you: the first describes the field, the second decides what your state will accept in your file.
Weighing the move into the director's chair at all?
The childcare director career guide covers the role itself — duties, settings and how the job works.
Best degrees for directors
No single degree is the director's degree.
What the documented picture supports is a short list of study routes that map onto the job and onto the state range above.
- Bachelor's in early childhood education. This is BLS's typical entry profile for directors — a bachelor's plus ECE experience. It also travels well: BLS notes that people with an ECE bachelor's are frequently qualified to teach kindergarten through grade 3 as well as preschool, and that those grades typically pay more, so the degree keeps a classroom career open alongside the leadership one. The exact grade band depends on the state's teaching license.
- An early childhood administration or leadership degree. If you're asking what degree you need for early childhood administration specifically, the answer is a degree oriented to running the program rather than teaching in a classroom. Our guide to the early childhood administration degree covers what those programs teach and how certificates compare.
- Associate degree in early childhood education. BLS puts typical entry-level education for preschool teachers at an associate degree, though requirements vary by setting and state. For an aspiring director its value is the ECE credits: the state range's floor is a high school diploma plus credits or a credential, so ECE credits are one of the building blocks a state's rule can count.
- Business or management degrees. The wildcard. A business degree builds budgeting and staffing skills relevant to running a center, but the state range runs in credits, credentials and degrees — so before enrolling in a generic management program, read it against your state's director list to see what it will and won't count.
On cost, the general college averages are the documented benchmark: College Board's 2025-26 averages put published tuition and fees at $4,150 a year at public two-year colleges (in-district) and $11,950 at public four-year colleges (in-state).
Those are sector averages, not program prices, so price from each college's published figures.
Owners vs directors: whose education rule applies?
Daycare owner education requirements are the indirect version of the director question: the degree rules documented in our research attach to roles — such as the director of a licensed center — not to owning the business.
Some states do put training on owners: Mississippi requires owners to complete mandatory training before a new license is issued, and Ohio requires the owner to complete the state's center prelicensing training.
BLS describes the pattern at independently owned centers this way: directors follow the owner's guidelines, and sometimes the director is the owner.
When you're the owner directing your own center, the director's education question becomes yours, and the state range above is the one you plan around.
Where the owner stays out of the director's chair, the education rule attaches to whoever directs — plus the organization's own bar.
In Washington, for example, a center licensee must either meet the center director qualifications or hire a qualified director before an initial license is granted.
At chains and franchises, BLS notes, the director must meet the parent organization's standards.
On the franchise side, the owner qualification our research documents is financial rather than academic: Kiddie Academy sells franchises and says owners do not need education-field experience but must meet minimum financial qualifications.
Two scope notes keep this honest.
First, nothing here transfers across settings: a center's rules don't automatically carry to a family child care home, and home-based providers work under their state's own family child care licensing rules — the family child care licensing requirements series owns that picture.
Second, the owner route turns on questions that go beyond degrees — paths to owning, start versus buy versus franchise, and the move from decision to opening day — and the how to become a daycare owner guide walks them.
Next step: your state's director rules
The degree question resolves at the state line.
Where your state sets director rules, the list of degrees, credits, credentials and experience it accepts is what your study plan has to fit — that list, not a national average, decides whether the degree you're eyeing clears the bar.
Read it before you enroll, not after.
Our state-by-state director requirements guide collects what each state's licensing agency sets, and the director requirements by state walkthrough of Texas shows the format: the agency and the exact education, credential and experience routes it accepts.
If your state uses a director credential, the childcare director credential guide explains that instrument so you can compare it against a degree.
Career information, not licensing or legal advice — confirm director education requirements with your state child care licensing agency.
Confirm the current rules with your state's licensing agency