DC Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund: Who Qualifies and How Much

Washington, DC's Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund is the District's pay program for early childhood educators: a fund that reaches your paycheck by setting minimum salaries your employer must pay.

It is run by OSSE — the Office of the State Superintendent of Education — the same agency that licenses child development facilities in DC.

The program has worked three different ways.

In FY22, eligible educators received one payment of up to $14,000 depending on their staff type.

In FY23, it paid up to four $3,500 installments.

Both of those rounds went directly to educators.

Since FY24, the money has flowed differently: OSSE pays participating child development facilities quarterly, and those facilities must pay the minimum salaries the fund establishes.

That makes the program today a required salary floor rather than a bonus check — your route to the money runs through your employer's participation, not through a form of your own.

Participation is voluntary.

DC child care facilities are not required to join the fund; a participant must be OSSE-licensed and must agree to pay eligible educators at least the minimum salaries by position and degree, unless OSSE approves a waiver.

Qualification has two layers, and the first one is not yours to control: your child development facility has to be in.

The facility must hold an OSSE license and have joined the fund, agreeing to pay eligible educators, by position and degree, salaries that meet or exceed the minimums OSSE establishes.

If your program never joined, the fund's minimums do not govern your pay, however well your role fits the scale.

The second layer is your position and credential, because the minimum salaries are set per role and degree.

The FY26 scale our research verified distinguishes assistant teachers, lead teachers and home caregivers, and sets its minimums by credential level: a CDA, an associate degree or 60 college credits, an ECE associate degree or 12 ECE credits, and an ECE bachelor's degree or a bachelor's plus 12 ECE credits.

Home-based educators are in the picture too.

The scale carries a row labeled assistant/associate home caregiver with an associate degree or 60 college credits, so home caregivers, not only center staff, appear on it.

Our research did not confirm exactly which positions that row covers, so ask OSSE which row applies to you.

What the pages we read do not spell out is any further educator-level criteria, such as an hours threshold.

Our research did not confirm one either way, so ask OSSE how your own position is treated before you assume the scale covers it.

Your row on the scale is set by the credential you hold.

For the national picture of what each role needs to work in a facility, see our overview of staff requirements state by state; it does not set out DC's own rules.

The shortest answer: the fund no longer pays you directly — it sets the minimum your employer must pay you.

The most recent minimums our research could verify took effect January 1, 2026, when the Early Childhood Educator Pay Scales Emergency Amendment Act of 2025, passed October 21, 2025, reduced them.

Here are the FY26 rows our research verified.

Read down the lead-teacher rows and the credential is the lever: the same role carries a $48,736 minimum with a CDA, $60,678 with an ECE associate degree or 12 ECE credits, and $71,010 with an ECE bachelor's or a bachelor's plus 12 ECE credits, all effective from January 1, 2026.

One caveat sits on top of every row: a participating facility must pay at least the minimum salaries unless OSSE approves a waiver.

Ask whether your program participates, and whether any waiver applies to it, before you read the table as a promise.

Minimums for FY27, which begins in October 2026, did not turn up in our research.

The figures above are the FY26 scale in effect from January 1, 2026 — ask OSSE what applies in FY27 and after, before you plan around any number here.

Here is the honest part: the OSSE pages we read describe no application that an educator files.

Since FY24, OSSE pays participating child development facilities quarterly and the facilities must pay the minimum salaries, so the material our research covered sets out no educator-side form.

The mechanism is your employer's participation and your row on the scale.

What you can do is work down this list:

On renewal, our research found no educator-side step either.

What changes is the scale itself: the FY26 minimums replaced the previous scale on January 1, 2026, and a new act or a new fiscal year can move the numbers again.

OSSE's Pay Equity Fund pages — the source behind every figure on this page — are the current answer.

The timing follows the fund's fiscal rhythm.

The fund paid educators directly once in FY22 and in up to four installments in FY23; since FY24 it has paid participating facilities quarterly.

The FY26 minimum salaries took effect on January 1, 2026.

The money moves from OSSE to your facility each quarter, and a participating facility's pay has to meet the minimum for your row from that date onward.

On taxes, the pages we read are silent: neither OSSE's fund page nor its educator notice states how payments are treated for tax purposes.

The mechanics changed along the way — the FY22 and FY23 payments went straight to educators, while the money now flows to facilities as quarterly payments that fund required salaries — and how either arrangement is reported is not stated in our sources.

DC is not the only jurisdiction putting public money into early educator pay.

Our guide to state wage supplements and bonuses maps every program our research could verify as of October 2026 — who qualifies, the amounts, and which programs have ended.

This page is career information, not licensing, legal or tax advice. Program rules, amounts and eligibility change; confirm current details with OSSE, which runs the Pay Equity Fund and licenses DC's child development facilities.