Childcare director job description template (duties, qualifications, schedule)
A copy-paste template with the duties, qualifications, physical requirements, schedule and pay line a childcare director posting needs — and the employment rules behind each section.
A job description for a childcare director — whether your posting says childcare director, daycare director or preschool director — has five jobs to do: name the duties the role actually owns, separate the qualifications your state's licensing rule requires from the ones you merely prefer, describe the physical demands and schedule honestly, put a real pay range in the posting, and stay clear of wording that shrinks your applicant pool. The template below does all five.
At a glance
SOC 11-9031, U.S., all industries
Pay benchmark (BLS OEWS May 2025)
$59,300 median/year
Verified from primary sources — state-by-state thresholds below
Pay disclosure required (employer-size thresholds vary)
CA, CO, NY, WA, IL, MN, MA, VT
'Young, energetic' and female-only requests are out
Ad wording (EEOC)
No protected-trait preferences
What to include
Key duties and responsibilities
Start from what the director owns at your center, not from a generic list.
An owner who stays on-site may keep finances or family tours; a director who covers a classroom a few hours a day is doing a different job from one fully out of ratio.
Decide the split before you write, because the same list becomes your screening rubric.
Our guide to how to hire a childcare director walks through that split in detail.
Group the duties so a candidate can see the shape of the week:
- Operations and licensing: opening and closing coverage, room scheduling, and the records your state child care licensing agency requires your center to keep.
- Staffing: hiring, onboarding, scheduling and coaching teachers and assistants, with coverage built around the staff-to-child ratios your license operates under.
- Program quality: classroom observation, curriculum support and coaching against your program's goals.
- Families and enrollment: tours, enrollment paperwork, the parent handbook, tuition billing and day-to-day family communication.
- Health and safety: drills, incident documentation, medication and allergy records, and food-program paperwork.
Tie the duties to the age groups your center serves and to the parts of the day that are hardest to staff.
If the director will cover in a classroom, say so plainly — candidates will ask, and a posting that hides ratio coverage wastes everyone's time.
Minimum and preferred qualifications
Your state's child care licensing agency sets who may direct a center, so write the minimum line as "meets [state] child care licensing requirements for the director role" and confirm the exact education, credential and experience bar with your licensing consultant before you post.
Requirements differ by state and change; nothing in a national template substitutes for your state's rule.
Move everything that is not part of your state's rule into "preferred": a CDA or other early-childhood credential beyond the state minimum, experience supervising teachers, scheduling to ratio, or enrollment and billing experience.
A credential wall above what your state requires can shrink your applicant pool without changing what your license demands.
The same logic holds for a church or faith-based preschool posting — put the ministry context in the About section and tie the qualifications line to your state's rule.
Physical requirements and schedule
Describe the demands the job actually has: classroom floor time with children, lifting children and materials, standing and walking for long stretches of the day, plus the office side — records, billing and tours.
Under the ADA, physical requirements in a job description should describe the job's essential functions, and the EEOC requires accommodation for applicants with disabilities unless the accommodation causes the employer significant difficulty or expense.
Our research found no federal or national licensing rule that sets a lifting weight for childcare jobs — a line like "must lift 40 lbs" is an employer's choice, not a requirement.
State the function, not a figure, and leave room to accommodate: under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, employers with 15 or more employees must reasonably accommodate known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions.
Then the schedule, stated honestly: your center's open hours, who opens and who closes, staff meetings, required training days, and whether the director is expected at evening events.
A posting that hides the schedule invites an early resignation.
How to write the pay and benefits line
Put a real range in the posting.
The benchmark: BLS's OEWS survey for May 2025 puts education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare (SOC 11-9031) at a U.S. median of $59,300 a year ($28.51 an hour), with the 10th percentile at $38,580 and the 90th at $98,240.
Those are national, all-industry figures for the occupation — a reference point, not a recommendation.
For state and metro numbers, see our childcare director salary data.
In eight states verified from primary sources, pay disclosure in the posting is not optional for the employers each law covers:
- California: employers with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale in any job posting (Labor Code 432.3).
- Colorado: the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires compensation disclosure in all job postings, internal and public, including benefits information.
- New York: businesses with four or more employees must list compensation ranges in postings for jobs, promotions and transfers (Labor Law 194-b).
- Washington: employers with 15 or more employees must disclose the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits in each posting (RCW 49.58.110).
- Illinois: employers with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale and benefits in any specific job posting — a hyperlink to a public page with that information satisfies the rule (820 ILCS 112/10(b-25)).
- Minnesota: employers with 30 or more employees in Minnesota must include a good-faith salary range in job postings (Minn. Stat. 181.173).
- Massachusetts: since October 29, 2025, employers with 25 or more employees must disclose wage ranges in job postings.
- Vermont: employers with five or more employees must include the compensation or range of compensation in any advertisement of a Vermont job opening.
More states are reported by secondary trackers to require pay ranges as of October 2026; we did not verify those against primary sources, so confirm your state labor department's current rule before you post.
Where no rule applies, a specific range and a plain benefits list — health coverage, paid time off, professional development, a child care discount if you offer one — give a director candidate something to say yes to. "Depends on experience" gives them nothing.
The template
Copy this sample childcare director job description, replace every bracket, and delete any section that genuinely does not apply to your center. Keep the qualification line tied to your state's rule, and keep the pay line specific even where your state does not require one.
CHILDCARE DIRECTOR — [Center name] [City, State] · Full-time · On-site [Center name] is a licensed child care center serving [age groups, e.g., infants, toddlers, preschool and pre-K]. ABOUT THE ROLE We are hiring a director to run day-to-day operations at [Center name]: leading our teaching team, keeping our licensing records current, and owning enrollment and family communication. [Add faith-based or program-specific context here, if any.] WHAT YOU WILL OWN • Daily operations — opening and closing coverage, room scheduling, and the records our state child care licensing agency requires us to keep • Staffing — hiring, onboarding, scheduling and coaching teachers and assistants, with coverage built around the staff-to-child ratios our license operates under • Program quality — classroom observation, curriculum support and coaching against our program's goals • Families and enrollment — tours, enrollment paperwork, our parent handbook, tuition billing and day-to-day family communication • Health and safety — drills, incident documentation, medication and allergy records, and food-program paperwork MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS • Meets [state] child care licensing requirements for the [director title your state uses] role • [Credential, degree or experience your state's rule requires for your license — confirm with your licensing consultant] • [Number] years of early childhood experience, including [number] leading a classroom or program PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS • A CDA or other early-childhood credential beyond the state minimum • Experience supervising teachers and scheduling to ratio • Enrollment, billing or family-communication experience PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS AND SCHEDULE • This role moves between classrooms and the office: classroom floor time with children, lifting children and materials, standing and walking for long stretches of the day, plus computer and records work • Schedule: [days, e.g., Monday through Friday], [opening time] to [closing time], plus staff meetings, required training days and [evening events, if any] • We provide reasonable accommodations consistent with the ADA and, where applicable, the PWFA COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS • Pay: [pay range] per [hour/year], depending on [credentials and experience] • Benefits: [health coverage, paid time off, retirement, professional development, child care discount — list what you offer] HOW TO APPLY [Application instructions and timeline] [Center name] is an equal opportunity employer.
After you post
Mistakes that shrink your applicant pool
The costliest mistakes are wording, not budget:
- Preference wording. An ad that shows a preference based on a protected trait is illegal — the EEOC's examples are help-wanted ads seeking "females" or "recent college graduates." In childcare wording, "young, energetic" and female-only requests are out.
- A lifting weight stated as a requirement. Our research found no federal or national licensing rule that sets one — describe the essential function instead.
- A credential wall above your state's rule. Require what your state requires; prefer the rest.
- A pay line that hides the number. In the eight states above, posting pay is required by law for employers at or above the size threshold each state's law sets; where no rule applies, "depends on experience" still gives a director candidate nothing to evaluate.
- No room to accommodate. The ADA expects a job description's physical requirements to describe essential functions, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires employers with 15 or more employees to reasonably accommodate known limitations related to pregnancy — phrase your requirements as the functions the role truly needs.
What to do after you post
Paper-screen against the minimums you wrote, respond to strong candidates quickly, and run a structured phone screen before a tour and classroom observation.
Then the background check — follow your state's process for new hires, and build the timing into your start date; our guide to background checks for childcare hires covers the steps.
Once the posting is live, see what candidates see on our childcare director jobs page.
If you are still choosing where to advertise, our guide to where to post childcare jobs compares the options.
This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Confirm qualification, posting and background-check rules with your state child care licensing agency, pay-transparency rules with your state labor department, and accommodation and wage questions with the EEOC, the Department of Labor or your employment counsel.
More hiring resources
Ready to post your director job?
Post your childcare director opening on a board that lists only early-education jobs — the directors and assistant directors who read it are looking for roles like yours.