NAEYC Career Center Alternatives: Other Places to Post Early Childhood Jobs

The NAEYC Early Childhood Career Center is the job board the National Association for the Education of Young Children runs for employers and job seekers in the field.

An employer account posts jobs, reviews and organizes incoming applications, and searches a resume database filtered by key criteria.

A single 30-day posting costs $195 for NAEYC members and $220 for non-members, every package includes resume search access, and packages can be used within 1 year of purchase.

That price is per posting, and a center replacing a lead teacher, an assistant and a floater in the same season pays it three times.

Bundles bring the unit price down for members — $790 for 5 postings through $5,845 for 50, or $116 each at the top tier — but they are a larger up-front spend, and every non-member bundle prices at $165 per posting.

Add-ons raise the total further: Featured Jobs start at $100 and Targeted Job Distribution at $150, while the Featured Employer options (a brand profile page, banner ad rotation, an enhanced posting) are listed without prices at all.

None of that makes NAEYC a poor choice — for a member center with steady hiring, the member bundles and the included resume search are the reason to stay.

The centers that look elsewhere are the ones that want a lower single-post price, a pay-as-you-go model with no bundle to buy into, applications arriving on the center's own application page, or a free channel to try first.

Those are the alternatives below.

ChildcareHires. A job board built only for early-education jobs, with 31 role pages running from infant, toddler, preschool and pre-K teachers to directors, cooks, drivers and family advocates.

A Standard post is $199 at launch pricing (regular $299) and runs 30 days; a Featured post is $399 (regular $499).

There is no résumé database: candidates apply on the center's own application page or inbox, and the board does not screen or vouch for candidates.

Groups that hire constantly can move to a slot plan — $899 a month for up to 10 posts live at once, or $1,749 a month for 25 with Featured placement on every post.

Child Care Aware of America Child Care Career Center. A 30-day posting costs $199, and members of Child Care Aware of America can post basic 30-day listings for free.

The Job Flash packages email a job to "Qualified Child Care Professionals": $299 for the posting-plus-email package, $399 for Premium Job Flash (stays high in search results and is highlighted) and $599 for Ultimate Recruitment, which adds a TalentBoost distribution to a network of 1,000+ sites.

Resumes are sold individually at $35 each.

The pricing page's claim that Job Flash can "increase candidates by up to 500%" is self-reported.

State and local job banks. Free job-opening lists for licensed programs also come from state licensing agencies and city early childhood organizations.

Delaware's Office of Child Care Licensing posts openings "as a courtesy to licensed child care facilities" — noting that it does not specifically endorse the organizations — and lists openings from the last 4 weeks with the position, full- or part-time status, salary and contact details.

New York City's Early Childhood Career Center, run by the city's Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, lets employers "post your openings with us at no cost to you" and connects employers and job seekers through advisors in its ECE Employment Network.

Reach is local or statewide and the format is a plain list, but the price is nothing.

EarlyDay (Wonderschool). EarlyDay calls itself "the only dedicated career marketplace for early childhood educators." Centers post openings and receive applications from what the company describes as a pool of qualified, pre-screened candidates, and employers can search candidates directly.

Neither EarlyDay nor Wonderschool's teacher-recruitment page publishes a price — Wonderschool says it recruits teachers "at rates that work for the child care program" — so budgeting starts with a conversation, not a rate card.

Indeed. A general job site covering every industry, early childhood included.

Many jobs can be posted for free, subject to Indeed's terms, quality standards and usage limits, though some jobs are "sponsored only" — for example, jobs aggregated from a company website or published from an applicant tracking system.

Sponsored Jobs have no fixed price: the Standard price is generated by Indeed's recommendation system, the minimum for a given job appears on the sponsorship page, and Premium is set above Standard.

New US accounts that post a job get a $75 credit toward a first sponsored job, expiring one year after account creation.

LinkedIn. The professional network offers a free, non-promoted job posting, with paid promoted options — a first-job promotion may start as a trial that must be closed before it ends to avoid charges at the recommended budget.

There is no early childhood focus, so a post competes with every industry, but for a director or office-manager search, or a center that already maintains a LinkedIn page, it costs nothing to try.

ChildcareHires: $199 for a Standard 30-day post and $399 for Featured, both at launch pricing (regular $299 and $499).

Launch pricing is introductory while the board is new and can end without notice.

Slot plans are $899 a month for up to 10 posts live at once or $1,749 a month for 25, arranged by contacting ChildcareHires, billed monthly, cancelable anytime.

Child Care Aware Career Center: $199 per 30-day posting, with basic 30-day listings free for Child Care Aware of America members.

The Job Flash email packages sit at $299, $399 and $599, and a single resume costs $35.

State and local job banks: free where offered.

Neither example here lists a charge to appear: New York City's Early Childhood Career Center says so outright — "at no cost to you" — and Delaware's Office of Child Care Licensing posts its list as a courtesy to licensed child care facilities.

EarlyDay: not published.

Neither EarlyDay nor Wonderschool's teacher-recruitment page lists a price, so expect a quote rather than a rate card.

Indeed: free posting on many jobs within Indeed's terms and usage limits, with Sponsored Jobs priced per job by the recommendation system and a $75 credit for eligible new US accounts.

There is no published flat rate to put in a budget line.

LinkedIn: free non-promoted posting; promoted options are paid, and a first-job trial must be closed before it ends to avoid charges at the recommended budget.

For scale, NAEYC's own rate card is $195 a single post for members and $220 without membership, with member bundles from $790 for 5 postings to $5,845 for 50 — $116 per posting at the top tier — and every non-member bundle at $165 per posting.

Without a membership, the $199 single-post prices at ChildcareHires (launch pricing) and Child Care Aware are the nearest like-for-like figures to NAEYC's $220 non-member rate.

Memberships change the picture: NAEYC members pay $195 a post, while Child Care Aware of America members post basic 30-day listings free.

NAEYC's employer account is built around managing candidates on the platform: post a job, review and organize all incoming applications, and search a resume database filtered by key criteria.

Resume search comes with every package, and the Child Care Aware Career Center works in a similar direction, selling individual resumes at $35 each.

ChildcareHires has no résumé database and no candidate profiles: a candidate who clicks Apply goes to the center's own application page or inbox, and ChildcareHires never sees or stores what they send.

It is a job board, not a staffing agency — it does not screen, interview or vouch for candidates.

That leaves screening with the center, which suits directors who already have a process.

Centers that want a pipeline screened before it reaches them are the marketplace customer instead — that is the pool EarlyDay describes.

State and local job banks are plain lists: Delaware's list shows each opening with its position, full- or part-time status, salary and contact details, so a candidate contacts the facility itself.

Indeed and LinkedIn are general platforms — the pages checked for this comparison cover their posting costs, not their applicant tooling, so check their product pages before relying on those features.

Match the board to the hiring situation rather than to the brand name.

• One classroom vacancy, local audience: start free — the state licensing agency's job list if it runs one, on the model of Delaware's — and add a flat-rate post if the list runs dry.
• Several roles at once, no membership to join: a Standard post for any role is $199 at launch pricing on ChildcareHires, and slot plans take over at $899 or $1,749 a month once hiring is constant.
• Already a Child Care Aware of America member: the free basic 30-day listings make that career center the default first post, with a Job Flash package as the paid boost.
• Steady hiring and you want a resume database: this is where NAEYC's model earns its keep — resume search is included in every package, and member bundles bring the per-posting price down to $116 at the 50-pack tier.
• Want pre-screening handled for you: EarlyDay is the marketplace built around that, with no published price to compare.

Whatever the mix, check the current price pages before you buy — rates change, and ChildcareHires' launch pricing can end without notice.

The ChildcareHires fact sheet lists every price and term on one page, and the pricing page is where a post is bought.