A childcare staffing agency keeps a roster of screened substitutes and sends them to centers that need a room covered; childcare sub apps run the same model from your phone, with open shifts posted straight to the pool.
You apply once, clear the agency's screening, then work assignments at different centers instead of holding one classroom job.
Here is how that works, what it pays and charges, and the trade-offs.
How childcare staffing agencies and sub apps work
A daycare staffing agency sits between you and a list of centers.
The agency recruits and screens substitutes, contracts with centers and preschools that need coverage, and pays you for the assignments you work.
Childcare sub apps run the same model: open shifts post to the pool with the center, the age group and the rate, and you claim the ones that fit your week.
Either way, your schedule comes from many workplaces instead of one classroom.
The need comes from ordinary scheduling math.
BLS notes childcare centers are usually open year round with long hours, and some cover the whole day with full-time and part-time staff on staggered shifts — so a room still needs covering when its regular teacher is out.
Agencies and center sub pools exist to fill those gaps without a director making calls every morning.
Joining a roster starts with one application instead of many.
Screening mirrors a regular childcare hire, because the federal background-check rule counts agency temps and contracted subs the same as a center's own staff.
Federal CCDF rules at 45 CFR 98.43 require a comprehensive background check for every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider, and the rule's definition of child care staff member explicitly covers contract employees and self-employed workers — staffing-agency temps and contracted subs included.
States layer their own rules on top: BLS notes that to qualify for licensure, childcare staff often must pass a background check, keep a complete record of immunizations and meet a minimum training requirement, and some states require CPR and first aid certification.
Education expectations are set the same way, state by state: some states require a high school diploma or equivalent for entry-level roles, while others have no education requirements for those positions.
Where a state does require a nationally recognized credential, BLS says it is most often the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, which is renewed every 3 years.
Have your documents ready before you apply — an agency will ask for whatever your state requires.
Once you are cleared, work arrives as offers: notifications in the app, a text from a dispatcher or a schedule you build yourself.
On site you cover the room the way any substitute would — follow the center's plans, keep the room's routines and leave a note for the regular teacher.
Because centers see how you handle a room before either side commits, an agency shift can turn into an offer for a permanent role.
Agency work is not the only route into substituting — centers also keep their own on-call subs and cover absences by extending part-time staff's days.
The daycare substitute teacher career guide explains how subbing works, what centers and states look for, and what it pays.
Requirements come from federal rules and your state
Pay and fees when you sub through an agency or app
Start with the honest limit: our research found no national pay statistic for substitutes alone.
The broader occupation BLS publishes for daycare classroom staff is childcare workers (SOC 39-9011), and its May 2025 median pay was $16.82 an hour or $34,980 a year.
The spread around that median is wide — the lowest 10 percent of childcare workers earned less than $11.66 an hour in May 2025, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $22.12 an hour.
Setting matters in that data.
The May 2025 median hourly wage for childcare workers was $16.43 in child daycare services and $18.15 in local elementary and secondary schools.
Judge any posted rate against what the work pays in the setting where you would work it — the daycare figure, not the school figure, unless the shift itself is in a school.
Agency and app rates are not BLS data: the agency sets a rate per assignment and posts it with the shift.
Rates can differ by center, age group and shift length, so the number that matters is the one attached to the offer you are looking at.
Compare the posted rates across the shifts you are actually offered, and treat any national figure as background rather than as your rate.
Get the money mechanics straight before your first shift: how you are classified, when the pay cycle runs, whether travel between two centers in one day is paid, and what happens to a shift the center cancels at the last minute.
Get those answers from the agency instead of assuming it works like a center payroll.
On fees: a staffing agency's customer is the center that needs coverage, so a charge to you should buy something specific — a training course, a credential or a background check.
If an app or agency asks you for money, ask exactly what it covers and get the answer in writing before you pay.
Pros and cons of subbing through a staffing agency or app
The honest read: agency and app work trades stability for control.
Where that lands for you depends on which of the two you need more.
On the plus side:
- You choose when you work. Build a week from posted shifts — the model suits students, parents and anyone easing back into early education.
- One screening, many doors. You apply once and can work across centers, age groups and curricula instead of interviewing at each one.
- The range builds fast. Covering an infant room one day and a pre-K room the next is evidence a single-classroom job does not give you.
- It is a low-stakes audition. A center watches how you handle a room before either side commits to anything.
- Openings keep coming. BLS projects about 150,300 openings for childcare workers each year, on average, over 2025-35, all from replacement needs rather than growth — staff roles to aim for when you want a permanent classroom.
On the minus side:
- Hours are irregular by design. BLS notes part-time work and irregular hours are common for childcare workers, and agency work sits at the sharp end: no posted shift means no pay that day.
- Every room is new. You relearn routines, names and nap schedules on the fly, in a room whose staffing and daily plan you did not set up.
- Benefits are not a given. Paid time off, health coverage and paid training depend on the arrangement — ask what the agency offers before you weigh it against a staff job.
- Income moves with the shifts. Without a guaranteed schedule, your weekly pay swings with demand and with the posted rates you can claim.
- You start without relationships. The children and co-workers are strangers on your first shift, with no established trust to lean on.
None of that decides it for you.
The employer side of this trade — what centers look for when they hire childcare substitutes — shows what the director across the room is weighing.
And when you want to see what is open right now, browse daycare substitute teacher jobs.
This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. Background-check rules come from federal CCDF rules (45 CFR 98.43); education, training and health requirements come from each state's child care licensing agency — confirm the current requirements with the licensing agency in your state.