You become a Montessori teacher in five steps: meet your state's baseline requirements for school staff, earn the Montessori credential the schools you want to work with expect, complete the training behind it, build classroom experience with your chosen age group, and apply.
Training is the long step — AMS says earning its credential typically takes 1-2 years.
What each step requires is set by your state child care licensing agency, the training organization and each school.
What do you need to become a Montessori teacher?
Three things decide whether you can take a Montessori teaching job: whatever your state requires of staff at the school, the Montessori credential the school expects for the role and age level, and classroom experience with the ages you will teach.
No single national body sets all three: staff requirements are state-by-state, and the credential can come from more than one training organization.
The training organizations' own rules show it.
AMS does not require teachers at AMS schools to hold an AMS credential, but for a school to earn AMS Accreditation, its lead teachers must hold Montessori credentials for the ages they teach.
That leaves the credential expectation varying from school to school — which is why the steps below start with your state's baseline and with job postings, not with a course catalog.
For what the job involves day to day, start with the Montessori teacher career guide, then come back here for the route into it.
Step 1: Meet the minimum age, education and health/background requirements
Clear the baseline before you pick a course.
Staff at licensed childcare programs answer to the state child care licensing agency: the agency sets what a teacher, assistant or aide must show — items such as minimum age, education level, background checks, health items and pre-service training — and the specifics differ from state to state and role to role.
The Montessori organizations sit outside that system.
AMS and AMI set entry rules for their courses, not for the job, so a Montessori credential will not tell you what your state requires — and the state will not tell you what a particular school asks for.
Read postings for the jobs you want alongside whatever your licensing agency says, then ask each school early what it needs before a start date.
Confirm requirements with your licensing agency
Step 2: Get the credential or coursework your state and employer expect
Now the credential.
Start from the postings for the schools and age level you want: they name what employers around you actually ask for — an AMS credential, an AMI diploma, or a course from another accredited program.
Enroll for what those postings name, not the other way around.
The two organizations this page's facts cover set entry differently.
Enrolling in an AMS-affiliated Montessori teacher education program requires a bachelor's degree, though at the Infant & Toddler and Early Childhood levels candidates without a bachelor's receive an associate credential.
AMI training centres offer diploma and certificate courses; the research behind this page does not confirm degree prerequisites for those courses, so ask each training centre what admission requires.
Whichever body you go with, our guide to Montessori teacher certification compares the organizations, the age levels and the cost in detail.
The accreditation check to run before you pay is in the last section of this page.
Step 3: Complete required pre-service training
Training runs on two tracks, and this step is where both get scheduled.
The state track: if the school operates as a licensed childcare program, the licensing agency's pre-service requirements for your role apply to you, and the school will tell you which items must be done before you start.
The Montessori track: the course behind the credential — AMS says earning an AMS credential typically takes 1-2 years.
Practical order: ask the school which clearances and training it needs before your first day and get that paperwork moving while your coursework is under way.
If an item can only be scheduled through an employer, say in your applications that you are mid-program and ask how the school handles it for new hires.
Step 4: Gain classroom experience (aide, assistant, sub, practicum)
Classroom experience can run alongside your training: assistant, aide and substitute roles put you in rooms with the age band you are targeting, and each school's posting says what it asks of those roles.
Those roles also put you in front of directors — a school that has watched you work is an easier hire than a name on an application.
Aim the experience at the credential you plan to earn.
Montessori credentials attach to the ages you teach — AMS-accredited schools must have lead teachers holding credentials for the ages they teach — so a year as an infant-room assistant points at a different course than the same time in a preschool room.
If your training includes a practicum or practice-teaching placement, treat it as your first Montessori reference, and ask your supervising teacher whether they would take a call from a director on your behalf a year later.
Step 5: Apply for Montessori teacher jobs
Apply with the level, not just the role.
A posting-ready application names your training program and its age level, your status — enrolled, in practicum, credentialed — the ages you have actually worked with, and the credential the posting asks for.
Directors staffing a Montessori classroom are matching a course of study to a room; make that match visible on the first read.
The credential matters most at the top of the room: at AMS-accredited schools, lead teachers must hold Montessori credentials for the ages they teach, so the credential is what positions you for lead-teacher titles at those schools.
The credential rule in this page's facts covers lead teachers at AMS-accredited schools; for assistant and support roles, the posting is the requirement to check.
See what is being asked for right now: browse Montessori teacher jobs and read the requirements line on each posting before you commit to a training program.
How long does it take?
The training is the long step: AMS says earning an AMS credential typically takes 1-2 years.
Everything outside the course runs on its own clock.
A bachelor's degree, if you take the AMS degree route into an affiliated program, comes before the course starts, and the step 1 baseline — background check, health items — runs on the state's and the employer's timetable, not the training center's.
After the credential, the clock changes rather than stops: AMS says that if your AMS credential was issued on or after July 1, 2013, you must complete 50 hours of continuing professional development every 5 years to keep it active.
Do you need a degree first?
Not necessarily — the answer depends on the credentialing route.
On the AMS route, enrolling in an affiliated teacher education program requires a bachelor's degree.
The exception is built into the same system: at the Infant & Toddler and Early Childhood levels, candidates who do not hold a bachelor's degree or the equivalent receive an associate credential.
On the AMI route, training centres offer diploma and certificate courses; the research behind this page does not confirm degree prerequisites for those courses, so put the question to each training centre's admissions office.
Either way, the requirement that decides any given job is the one in its posting — read the requirements line on the postings for the schools you are targeting.
Choosing an age level
Montessori credentials attach to an age level, and the level you train for should be the level you want to teach — AMS requires lead teachers at accredited schools to hold credentials for the ages they teach.
The AMS levels named in this page's facts are Infant & Toddler and Early Childhood, and the associate-credential route for candidates without a bachelor's applies at exactly those two levels.
Two ways to choose: the age band you already know you enjoy, or the postings for the jobs you want — if you want to be hired into a preschool room, train for that level.
The level-by-level detail, including how each organization names and divides its age bands, is on our Montessori teacher certification page.
Completing accredited training
Before you pay a deposit, check who stands behind the program.
MACTE — the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education, founded in 1995 — accredits Montessori teacher education programs and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
AMI works differently: its training centres offer diploma and certificate courses, and diploma courses are examined by external examiners appointed by AMI.
Both answer the same question — who checks this program, and who issues the credential at the end.
Ask every program you are considering for its current accreditation or affiliation status, and confirm the credential it awards is one the postings you are targeting actually name.
Training costs are outside this page's research; our guide to Montessori teacher certification has published price examples and scholarship leads.
Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Staff requirements for childcare programs are set state by state — confirm the current rules with your state child care licensing agency.