What does an Early Head Start home visitor do?

The week is organized around a visit calendar.

In the Early Head Start home-based option, the program must provide one home visit per family per week lasting at least 90 minutes — a minimum of 46 visits per family per year — plus at least 22 group socializations, sessions where the program's home-based families come together as a group (45 CFR 1302.22(c)(1), the Office of Head Start's standards).

Head Start Preschool home-based programs run the same weekly, 90-minute visit on a different calendar: at least 32 home visits and 16 group socializations per year (45 CFR 1302.22(c)(2)).

The caseload behind the calendar is capped too — a home-based program must maintain an average caseload of 10 to 12 families per home visitor, and no individual home visitor carries more than 12 (45 CFR 1302.22(b)).

Inside those visits, the work settles into a repeatable set of duties:

• Deliver the weekly visit. Each family gets one visit a week of at least 90 minutes, and preparing and running those sessions is the spine of the calendar. On curriculum, Head Start and Early Head Start home-based programs can use Parents as Teachers as a "Curriculum Partner" — PAT's arrangement for home-based programs, under which the program's providers are trained in the Foundational Curriculum only.
• Plan and run the group socializations. The at-least-22 (Early Head Start) or 16 (Head Start Preschool) group sessions a year sit on the home visitor's calendar next to the home visits.
• Keep screening on schedule. Head Start must obtain or perform evidence-based vision and hearing screenings within 45 calendar days after a child first attends — for a home-based enrollment, that clock starts at the first home visit (45 CFR 1302.42(b)(2)).
• Document as you go. Visit notes, screening records and referral follow-ups are the paperwork trail that lets a program see a caseload it never gathers in one room.

Our research covers three kinds of employer for this job.

Head Start and Early Head Start grant recipients employ home visitors wherever a program runs a home-based option; in the 2023-24 program year, 62% of Head Start grant recipients ran both Head Start Preschool and Early Head Start, 12% ran Early Head Start only, and 26% ran preschool only.

If you are applying for classroom work, it is worth checking whether a grantee near you also runs the home-based option.

Parents as Teachers affiliates are the second employer type.

They hire parent educators, and PAT requires those parent educators and supervisors to complete Foundational Training before Model Implementation Training.

Third come other home visiting programs; our research did not confirm which of them are funded through the federal MIECHV initiative.

The reference list for MIECHV evidence-based models is HomVEE, the Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness review project run by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families.

For scale: about 112,000 Head Start staff provided child development services in 2023-24 — a federal headcount that bundles home visitors with teachers, assistant teachers and family child care providers, so it does not say how many home visitors that includes.

This page covers the educator side of home visiting only.

Both roles work with the same families, but Head Start's standards define them as different jobs with different qualification lines and different caseload rules.

The home visitor teaches.

The federal qualification standard for a home visitor providing home-based education is a home-based CDA credential or comparable credential, or equivalent coursework as part of an associate's or bachelor's degree (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(6)), and the job's output is the weekly visit and socialization calendar described above.

The family advocate — Head Start's rule text calls the role family service staff — runs the family partnership side.

That work centers on the family partnership agreement, developed jointly with parents, with goals reviewed, revised and tracked on an ongoing basis (45 CFR 1302.52(a), (c)(3)).

Staff hired after November 7, 2016 who work directly with families on that process must hold, within 18 months of hire, at least a credential or certification in social work, human services, family services, counseling or a related field (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(7)).

Since the 2024 rule, planned family-services caseloads are also capped, at 40 families per staff member with waiver and temporary-exception paths — a cap that takes effect August 1, 2027, and that the August 2026 proposal would remove.

Short version: the home visitor owns what happens inside the 90-minute visit; the family advocate owns the goals, referrals and partnership around it.

Different credential lines, different caseload rules, same families.

For Head Start and Early Head Start home-based positions, the Office of Head Start sets the floor: home visitors providing home-based education must have at least a home-based CDA credential or comparable credential, or equivalent coursework as part of an associate's or bachelor's degree (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(6)).

The CDA itself is awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition.

One standing requirement sits alongside the credential: all Head Start staff complete at least 15 clock hours of professional development per year (45 CFR 1302.92(b)(1)).

Outside Head Start, the hiring program sets the bar — Parents as Teachers affiliates train their parent educators through PAT's own sequence, and the combined Foundational and Model Implementation training was priced at $1,150 per person on PAT's 2024-25 pricing sheet, first-year curriculum access included.

The skill set the schedule itself demands is concrete: planning 10 to 12 weekly visits across a service area, keeping 90 minutes of structured parent-child work on track in someone's living room, running the group sessions that bring the program's families together, and documenting all of it independently.

Home visitors work one family at a time in the family's own space, so organization, communication and self-direction carry the weight a classroom team shares.

The short path: build the credential first.

For Head Start and Early Head Start home-based roles, that means a home-based CDA or equivalent coursework inside an associate's or bachelor's degree (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(6)); for a Parents as Teachers affiliate, it means completing PAT's Foundational and Model Implementation trainings.

Then expect the Head Start hiring checks — an interview, reference verification, a sex offender registry check and a state, tribal or FBI fingerprint check before you start, with the remaining checks due within 90 days and the full set repeating at least every five years (45 CFR 1302.90(b)).

Our research found no BLS wage series titled home visitor, so the nearest published category is the honest proxy: in the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, social and human service assistants (SOC 21-1093) had a median of $45,930 nationally, and $44,200 inside child care services (NAICS 6244), across 6,360 jobs.

Treat those as field-level figures for the category, not a home-visitor pay scale — the home visitor salary page explains what BLS can and cannot tell you about pay in this role.

The credential routes into the classroom.

Early Head Start center-based teachers need at least a CDA or comparable credential plus training or coursework focused on infant and toddler development (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(1)).

Head Start Preschool assistant teachers need a CDA or a state certificate that meets or exceeds it, enrollment in an associate's or bachelor's program, or enrollment in a CDA program to be finished within two years of hire (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(3)).

All Head Start Preschool center-based teachers must hold an associate's or bachelor's degree in child development or early childhood education, equivalent coursework, or otherwise meet the Head Start Act's route (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(2)(ii)).

Moving into a Head Start classroom from the family's home means meeting one of those lines.

Into program leadership: education managers and coordinators, including curriculum specialists, need a baccalaureate or advanced degree in early childhood education, or a baccalaureate or advanced degree plus equivalent ECE coursework and early education teaching experience (45 CFR 1302.91(d)(2)) — a statutory standard the 2026 proposal would leave in place.

Family services, health services and disability services managers share one rule: at least a baccalaureate, preferably related to what they oversee, for those hired after November 7, 2016 (45 CFR 1302.91(d)(1)).

Head Start directors hired after November 7, 2016 need a baccalaureate plus experience supervising staff and in fiscal management and administration (45 CFR 1302.91(b)) — a qualification the August 2026 proposal would remove.

Home visitor openings come from the employers above: local Head Start and Early Head Start grant recipients — check each grantee's own careers page — Parents as Teachers affiliates, and community home visiting organizations.

One federal hiring rule is worth knowing if Head Start has been part of your own life: programs must consider current and former Head Start parents for job vacancies they apply for and are qualified for (45 CFR 1302.90(b)(6)).

If that is you, applying through your own program is a route the hiring rule names directly.

ChildcareHires lists home visiting roles alongside the rest of the early-education jobs: browse home visitor jobs.

Career information, not licensing or legal advice. The rules described here are the Office of Head Start's Head Start Program Performance Standards; confirm current requirements with the hiring program or the Office of Head Start before you act on any figure on this page.