Curriculum coordinator job description template (duties, qualifications, schedule)

Key duties and responsibilities

Start from the scope, not from a director template.

A curriculum coordinator posting that lists enrollment, billing and staffing coverage next to curriculum reads as an administrative job, and the instructional leaders you want may scroll past it.

Decide what this seat owns outright — which rooms and ages it covers, how its week splits between classrooms and planning time, and what it decides versus recommends — then write the duty list from that scope.

Give the posting a title candidates actually search.

If your center calls this seat an education coordinator, carry both titles in the posting title — "Curriculum Coordinator / Education Coordinator" — and use the body to name the one your org chart uses.

Then group the duties so a candidate can see the shape of the week:

• Curriculum: selecting, adapting and keeping your curriculum aligned across the age groups you name — infant, toddler, preschool and pre-K, plus school-age if you run it.
• Lesson planning: weekly planning support and model lessons, so planning happens with teachers rather than arriving in a binder they inherit.
• Observation and coaching: scheduled classroom observations with feedback and modeling — the hours a week stated as a number, not an "as needed."
• Onboarding: bringing new teachers onto the curriculum from their first week.
• Materials and environment: the materials each room needs to run the approach well, and the tracking that keeps them stocked.
• Classroom coverage, if any: whether this seat counts in ratio, in which age groups, for how many hours — stated in the posting, not discovered in week one.

Close the section with an authority line: what the role decides (materials, planning templates, how feedback gets followed up), what it recommends (curriculum adoption, schedule changes) and what it escalates to you.

Our guide to how to hire a curriculum coordinator walks the scoping decision that produces this list — make it first, because the same list becomes your screening rubric.

Minimum and preferred qualifications

Your state's child care licensing agency writes the rules on who may hold which role in a center, so keep the first minimum line placeholder-phrased — "meets [state] child care licensing requirements for the [title your state uses for this role]" — and confirm the exact education, credential and experience bar with your state child care licensing agency before you post.

Requirements differ by state and change; a national template cannot substitute for your state's rule.

Then add the line specific to this seat: if the coordinator will ever take a group, the ratio question follows them into that room — ask your licensing agency how your state treats a coordinator who takes a group.

Make "meets [state]'s qualification for counting in ratio in [age groups]" its own line, and get both answers from your state child care licensing agency in writing before the schedule is built around the seat — a coordinator title does not answer the ratio question by itself.

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 coaching or mentoring teachers across classrooms, implementation experience with the specific curriculum your program runs, fluency across the age groups you serve, or bilingual fluency in the languages your families speak.

A credential wall above what your state requires shrinks your applicant pool without changing what your license demands.

Rules differ by state and change. Confirm the qualification rules that apply to this hire with your state child care licensing agency before you post or offer.

Physical requirements and schedule

This seat is two-sided, and the posting should say so.

Observation days carry floor-level work with children and room-to-room movement; planning days carry curriculum writing, materials orders and the computer.

Write both — candidates planning around a desk job and candidates planning around classrooms both deserve the truth.

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 practice, not a requirement — so describe the function, not a figure.

And 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: which days carry observation blocks, how many hours a week are protected planning time, when staff meetings and required training days fall, whether the seat travels between buildings if you run more than one, and whether evening events like family nights are expected.

A coordinator hired for instructional work whose calendar never shows it will find that out in your interview — or in their first month.

How to write the pay and benefits line

Put a real range in the posting, and benchmark it honestly.

BLS's OEWS survey publishes no curriculum coordinator occupation, so this title has no BLS wage of its own — benchmark a related occupation and say that is what you did.

The leadership-tier category, education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare (SOC 11-9031), earned a U.S. median of $59,300 per year ($28.51 an hour) in the May 2025 survey, with the 10th percentile at $38,580 and the 90th at $98,240.

For the internal teaching line to weigh it against, preschool teachers except special education (SOC 25-2011) earned a U.S. median of $38,140 per year ($18.34 an hour) in the same survey.

Both are national, all-industry figures for those occupations — reference points, not wages published for this title.

Our curriculum coordinator salary page explains what the survey does and does not cover.

Position the range against your own scale before you write it down: an offer that barely clears your lead-teacher line buys the title without the commitment.

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; our research 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 curriculum coordinator candidate something to say yes to. "Depends on experience" gives them nothing.

Mistakes that shrink your applicant pool

The costliest mistakes are wording, not budget:

• Preference wording. A job 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.
• An administrator's duty list under a curriculum title. Enrollment, billing and staffing coverage dressed up as curriculum work read as an office job, and the coaching talent you want may skip it. Post the instructional scope you actually mean.
• A scope nobody can see. A posting that names no rooms, no ages and no split between coaching and administration tells strong candidates only that the role is undefined.
• The ratio question left unanswered. Whether the seat counts in ratio, in which rooms and under which qualification is a candidate's scheduling reality — a posting that stays silent leaves the people who need the answer guessing.
• 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 the employers each state's law covers; where no rule applies, "depends on experience" still gives a candidate nothing to evaluate.

What to do after you post

Paper-screen against the scope list you wrote first — rooms, ages, coaching split, ratio answer — and score for specifics: a candidate who can describe how classrooms changed under their coaching beats one with adjectives.

Respond quickly, and keep the timeline short enough that a candidate weighing another offer is not left waiting.

Then the background check: build your state's process and its timetable into your start-date plan — our guide to the background-check steps walks each one.

And pressure-test the posting itself: our curriculum coordinator jobs page shows what candidates see, and our childcare job ad examples show postings that get the wording right.

This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Confirm qualification, ratio and posting rules with your state child care licensing agency, pay-transparency rules with your state labor department, and accommodation questions with the EEOC or your employment counsel.