A preschool teacher educates and cares for children younger than age 5 who have not yet entered kindergarten.
This guide explains the job, the duties, the settings, the pay and the path into it.
What is a preschool teacher?
A preschool teacher is an early childhood educator who works with children in the years before kindergarten.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines the occupation precisely: preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011) educate and care for children younger than age 5 who have not yet entered kindergarten.
The same role travels under many titles.
O*NET reports Pre-Kindergarten Teacher, Montessori Preschool Teacher, Infant Teacher and Toddler Teacher among the job titles reported for preschool teachers, and lists Daycare Teacher, Infant Teacher and Toddler Teacher under the separate childcare worker occupation (SOC 39-9011) as well.
Federal statistics split daycare classroom roles across those two codes, so the title printed on a posting does not by itself determine which code a job maps to.
On the assistant side, O*NET lists Preschool Aide and Teacher Aide among the reported titles for teaching assistants (SOC 25-9042) — an occupation BLS counts as mostly K-12 school staff, while childcare-center assistant teachers are usually counted as childcare workers (SOC 39-9011) instead.
For licensed center classrooms, what a lead preschool teacher must have on file is a licensing question: requirements vary by setting and by state regulation, and the body that writes a center's rules is the state child care licensing agency.
What does a preschool teacher do?
O*NET's task list for preschool teachers includes teaching basic skills — colors, shapes, numbers, letters, hygiene and social skills — serving meals and snacks according to nutritional guidelines, meeting with parents about their children's progress, and maintaining student records.
Around the instruction is the care half of the definition: BLS pairs educating with caring for the children in the room, and the parent meetings O*NET lists are where a child's progress gets discussed.
What ages do preschool teachers teach?
The federal definition is by age and school entry: preschool teachers work with children younger than age 5 who have not yet entered kindergarten.
The field's credential system splits that band by age.
The Council for Professional Recognition — the body that issues the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential — sets its center-based Preschool CDA for children ages 3 to 5, and its Infant-Toddler CDA for ages birth to 36 months.
The titles overlap those bands.
O*NET reports Infant Teacher and Toddler Teacher among the job titles used for preschool teachers, and Pre-Kindergarten Teacher is a reported preschool-teacher title too — pre-K work sits inside the same federal occupation code as preschool work.
One posting title can therefore sit over different age rooms in different centers, so it is worth reading for the age band in the description rather than assuming it from the title.
Where do preschool teachers work?
Child daycare services is the largest single employer of preschool teachers.
In 2025, 65% of preschool teachers worked in child daycare services, 16% in educational services (state, local and private), 13% in religious, grantmaking, civic and similar organizations, and 2% in individual and family services, according to BLS.
The setting changes the shape of the job, not just the address.
BLS notes that preschool teachers in public schools generally work school hours, often on a 10-month year, while preschool teachers in daycare settings may work year-round with longer hours.
That employer mix is why one occupation can cover both a 10-month school calendar and a year-round daycare schedule.
How do you become a preschool teacher?
The short answer is that the path depends on the setting and the state.
BLS says preschool teachers typically need at least an associate's degree, with education and training requirements varying based on settings and state regulations — and BLS's "typically need" is a statistical description of the workforce, not a legal minimum.
For a licensed center classroom, the qualification bar is whatever the state child care licensing agency's rule says, and BLS notes that to qualify for licensure, childcare staff often must pass a background check, have a complete record of immunizations and meet a minimum training requirement — with some states requiring CPR and first aid certification.
The public-school route is the more credentialed one: BLS says public-school preschool teachers generally need at least a bachelor's degree and must be licensed to teach early childhood education, a license that covers preschool through third grade.
So the planning question changes with the door you walk through.
If you are aiming at a lead teacher role in a licensed center, the center qualification bar is written by that state's child care licensing agency, and it can differ from the state next door.
Requirements change — confirm them with the licensing agency
How much do preschool teachers make?
BLS puts the May 2025 median annual wage for preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011) at $38,140, or $18.34 per hour.
The percentiles around it: the lowest 10% of preschool teachers earned less than $28,990 and the highest 10% earned more than $61,390 in May 2025.
Those percentiles describe the occupation's earnings spread — the lowest 10% is not a prediction of a first-year offer.
The industry you work in moves the median.
In May 2025, the median annual wage for preschool teachers in educational services (state, local and private) was $52,800 versus $36,850 in child daycare services — the same occupation, measured across different employer types.
National figures are only the anchor: medians differ by state.
The preschool teacher salary page lists the BLS figures by state, so you can benchmark an offer against the state where you plan to work.
Is preschool teaching a good career?
Whether it is a good career depends on what you weigh.
Here are the measurable parts.
Preschool teachers held 583,200 jobs in 2025, BLS projects 4% employment growth from 2025 to 2035, and the agency projects 66,700 openings for preschool teachers each year, on average, over the decade.
For comparison, BLS projects employment of childcare workers (SOC 39-9011) — the code whose reported titles include Daycare Teacher — to decline 2% from 2025 to 2035.
Pay is the measurable trade-off.
The national median is $38,140 a year, and industry medians differ: $36,850 in child daycare services versus $52,800 in educational services (state, local and private).
The calendar differs the same way — BLS describes public-school preschool teachers as generally working school hours, often on a 10-month year, while daycare-setting teachers may work year-round with longer hours.
Read together, the numbers say the setting matters as much as the title: the median-wage gap BLS measures runs between educational services (state, local and private) and child daycare services, and the calendar contrast runs between public-school schedules and year-round daycare hours.
Entry and training requirements vary by setting as well — which is why the path in depends on the state you plan to work in.
Find preschool teacher jobs
BLS's employment counts put preschool teachers in child daycare services, educational services (state, local and private), religious, grantmaking, civic and similar organizations, and individual and family services. Preschool teacher jobs on ChildcareHires list early-education roles only.
Take the benchmarks with you: the national median wage and the state medians on the salary page give you a way to judge an offer's pay before you negotiate, and the requirements summary above tells you which questions to confirm with the state agency before you accept.
This guide is career information, not licensing or legal advice. Qualification, training and background-check rules are set by each state's child care licensing agency; confirm the current rules there before you make a decision that depends on them.