Education Requirements for Early Educators: How D.C. Is Doing It

Across many fields, such as nursing and law, education requirements signify a level of preparation that an individual has acquired to perform essential functions of their job. These credentials determine whether or not an individual can practice or perform certain job-related tasks. In many cases, the set of requirements—including training, credentials, and degrees—have been established and are agreed upon by a professional organization of those working directly in the field.

In early childhood, however, the education requirements vary by state and are based on the age of children, setting, and funding stream. A recent scan of requirements for lead teachers in licensed centers shows that 35 states require additional training or education beyond high school. Four states require only a high school diploma. In 11 states, the only requirement is an age requirement.

These differences in requirements are disconnected from the specialized training, knowledge, and skills needed to educate children during their most critical stage of development—which should not be different for a child growing up in California versus Iowa. They also do not reflect the education requirements that have been agreed upon by the early childhood field in the Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Education Profession. Released in 2020 by a coalition of national early childhood organizations, the framework requires at minimum an associate degree for lead teachers working in birth to five settings.

Establishing new requirements that require educators to return to school can bring about fear, anxiety, and stress. Early childhood educators are underpaid and undervalued, often working with minimal savings and benefits. Higher education systems are costly and have high barriers to entry and degree attainment for people of color who make up a large part of the early childhood educator workforce. In addition, degree programs may not be accessible to educators who speak languages other than English, work full-time, or have families to support. Even with these barriers, early childhood educators say they are willing to meet these requirements. They just need adequate support to get it done and the assurance of increased compensation once these requirements are met.

As one of the first major jurisdictions to raise minimum education requirements for all early childhood roles in licensed center- and home-based settings, Washington, D.C. offers lessons on policy implementation with consideration for the strengths and needs of the current and future early childhood workforce.

When the regulations were updated in 2016, raising the minimum credential for lead teachers to an associate degree, early childhood educators raised concerns about the affordability and accessibility of higher education programs, worried they would be pushed out of the workforce if they were unable to meet these requirements by the deadline. Program directors didn’t know how they would afford to pay educators higher salaries. To support the early childhood workforce in meeting these requirements, D.C. has invested in scholarships, pathways, and funds for increased compensation and benefits. In addition to building pipelines for individuals to enroll in and complete programs, implementation has also required recognition of the experiences of those currently in the early childhood field.

Making Higher Education More Accessible

Laws or regulations that increase requirements for educators must be accompanied by investments to help the workforce meet the requirements. This has been the case in D.C., where laws strengthening the early childhood system (such as in 2008 and 2018) included grant programs, scholarships, and university partnerships. There are several scholarship programs through a variety of funding sources for educators pursuing required credentials. For example, D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) funds the D.C. Leading Educators toward Advanced Degrees program for early childhood educators to enroll in programs at participating higher education institutions. The Advancing Early Education Collaborative (AEEC) is a philanthropically-funded partnership between local universities and community-based organizations that addresses barriers to both enrolling in and completing a program. Specifically, AEEC provides scholarships, supportive services, and stackable higher education pathways to Black and Latina early childhood educators in D.C.

Higher education programs are not always linguistically accessible to those who speak languages other than English. At the same time, there is a need for a pipeline of multilingual early childhood educators prepared to teach a growing population of dual language learners. To address this, D.C. offers credential and degree programs in different languages. This includes CDA Training Scholarship and Promotion Programs for new early childhood professionals in English, Spanish, and Amharic as well as bilingual associate degree program options for Spanish-speaking early childhood educators, such as the one at the University of the District of Columbia Community College.

Increased Education, Increased Compensation

Even then, asking early childhood educators to earn degrees without any promise of increased compensation or benefits can lead to resistance or low adoption. In D.C., there have been steps to match the call for increased qualifications with increased compensation and benefits. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (Pay Equity Fund) was created to achieve pay parity among early childhood educators and D.C. Public Schools teachers. For early childhood educators making a median annual salary of $35,000, payments from phase one of the Pay Equity Fund boosted salaries by over 30 percent. Additionally, in 2023, OSSE partnered with the D.C. Health Benefits Exchange Authority to launch HealthCare4ChildCare, providing premium-free health insurance for the early childhood workforce.

Responding to Local Workforce Strengths

Furthermore, what qualifies as meeting requirements must be responsive to the variety of valuable professional and educational experiences that early childhood educators bring to the profession. Late last year, OSSE updated regulations to provide additional flexibility in meeting the minimum education requirements. This included updating the waiver for individuals who have been in the field for more than a decade and a new waiver for individuals who are currently enrolled in a credential or degree program to meet education requirements while working. They also included the recognition of degrees earned in other countries, as well as recognition of OSSE-approved credentials awarded by other states. According to Sara Mead, deputy superintendent of early learning at OSSE, decisions about the modifications were informed by “listening to our stakeholder community, looking at scenarios that were occurring, really thinking about what we need to do to make the requirements make as much sense as possible for the realities of our community, and providing flexibility that enabled people to meet the requirements without actually watering down the requirements.”

Investing in early childhood education requires investing in the workforce. As state leaders set education requirements for early childhood educators, they need to provide sufficient funding to help the workforce meet these requirements and, perhaps most critically, provide increased compensation once the requirements are met. This has been a decades-long effort in D.C., one that has improved through deliberate engagement with the local workforce, higher education institutions, and community organizations. The decision to implement education requirements can be contentious, but, when done right, can also be an opportunity to elevate, value, and adequately compensate the early childhood workforce and continue the vital work of building a high-quality early childhood education system.