19.07 Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services · SOC 25-2011
⚠⚠⚠ $24,540 separates a preschool teacher from a kindergarten teacher, and the children are one year apart. Preschool $38,140, kindergarten $62,680 — the difference is not the work, it is which system employs you and which credential you hold. ⚠⚠ Florida sets the minimum for a VPK lead instructor at a Child Development Associate credential, which is not a degree, and its public institutions award 1,017 child care credentials a year of which ZERO are degrees.
| Role | SOC | 2025 median | Employed | Openings/yr | Growth 2025–35 | Entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Childcare worker | 39-9011 | ⚠ $34,980 | 1,010,000 | ⚠⚠⚠ 150,300 | ⚠⚠ −2% | high school |
| Preschool teacher | 25-2011 | $38,140 | 583,200 | 66,700 | 4% | associate |
| ✅ Kindergarten teacher | 25-2012 | ✅ $62,680 | 111,200 | — | 0% | ✅ bachelor's + certification |
| Elementary teacher | 25-2021 | $63,970 | 1,419,300 | — | 0% | bachelor's + certification |
⚠⚠⚠ A preschool teacher and a kindergarten teacher are doing recognisably the same job with children a year apart, and one earns $24,540 more. The gap is not skill or difficulty. It is that kindergarten is a public school post requiring a bachelor's and state certification, and preschool mostly is not.
⚠⚠ And look at the childcare worker row, because it is the clearest labour-market signal on this site: an occupation projected to decline 2 percent that still generates 150,300 openings a year — about 15% of the entire workforce, every year, replaced. That is turnover, and it is what a $34,980 median buys.
| Preschool Education | Prekindergarten/Primary Education | |
|---|---|---|
| Age band | ⚠ birth – age 4 | ✅ age 3 – GRADE 3 |
| Degree | bachelor's | bachelor's |
| Specialisation | 45 semester hours | 45 semester hours |
| Reaches a public-school classroom? | ⚠⚠ no | ✅ yes, through grade 3 |
⚠⚠⚠ Same degree level, same 45 hours, same content areas — and one of them stops at age four. The content lists are close to identical: child growth and development, historical and philosophical perspectives, developmentally appropriate curriculum, family and community involvement, health, nutrition and safety, assessment and evaluation, special needs.
⚠⚠ If you are going to do a bachelor's anyway, the age 3 – grade 3 certification is the one that reaches the salary schedule. This is the single most consequential choice on the page and almost nothing puts it in front of a student.
Section 1002.55, F.S. sets the minimum for a Voluntary Prekindergarten lead instructor at a child development associate credential or a DCF-approved equivalent. A CDA is a credential, not a degree.
The training system has arranged itself around exactly that:
| Code | Florida public institutions | Credentials | Of which degrees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child Care Provider/Assistant (19.0709) | 37 | 1,017 | ⚠⚠⚠ zero |
| Child Care Management (19.0708) | 13 | 331 | 56 associate |
| ✅ Early Childhood Education and Teaching (13.1210) | 31 | 842 | ✅ 513 bachelor's + 265 associate |
⚠⚠⚠ Every one of the 1,017 credentials under the child care provider code is a certificate. 663 of twelve weeks to a year, 183 of one to two years, 130 of two to four, 41 of under twelve weeks. Not one degree.
⚠⚠ The degree route exists and is filed somewhere else entirely — under teacher education, at 31 institutions, producing 513 bachelor's a year, with FIU alone awarding 216. A student searching for “early childhood” at a state college will find the certificate world; the degree world is in the college of education.
⚠ And the two do not automatically connect. Clock-hour and certificate training is not credit, so ask in writing what articulates before assuming a child care certificate counts toward the degree.
⚠⚠ That sequence is the difference between $38,140 and $62,680, and every step of it is available at a Florida public institution.
EEC1601 Observing and Recording Children's Behavior, at 11 institutions, and that is not an accident.⚠⚠⚠ If you are doing a bachelor's, get the age 3 – grade 3 certification. Nearly the same 45 semester hours as Preschool Education, and it reaches the public-school salary schedule. This is the highest-value decision on this page.
⚠⚠ Treat the certificate as a beginning, not a destination. It is a genuine credential that gets you working, and 1,017 people a year in Florida earn one that contains no degree credit. Plan the degree from the start and ask what articulates.
⚠ Look at the child care management tier honestly. 13 institutions, 331 credentials, only 56 of them associate degrees — the supervisory route is barely longer than the entry one, and a Florida Director Credential is what a centre director needs. It is a real step up in responsibility and a modest one in pay.
⚠⚠ Read the turnover figure as your negotiating position. 150,300 openings a year in a declining occupation means centres are short-staffed constantly. Experienced, credentialled staff have more leverage than the pay scale suggests — ask about the centre's staff turnover and its VPK ratios at interview.
And if you love this work but not the money, the two realistic moves are the primary classroom and school-based or social service roles. Both need a degree; neither asks you to leave young children.
A program is a field of study, one level above a degree — each page says which degrees it covers and which Florida institutions award them. ⚠ The count is institutions that awarded a credential in the field in 2023; it is not a promise that a school runs this exact degree, and it counts something different from the course-based list further down.
Programs worth knowing about if you are considering this career — ⚠ they do not lead to it. Each row says what it is and is not.
No other career on this site is filed in the same field yet — which says nothing about the career, only that we have not written its neighbours. Browse all career paths, or see what else is filed under FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES/HUMAN SCIENCES.
Selected, not exhaustive — the courses specific to this path plus the foundations it is built on. A course number does not identify a course in Florida: always check your own institution's catalog and take a syllabus to an adviser.
39 Florida public institutions teach courses on this path. The count is how many of the 14 listed courses each one carries — it shows where the path is best covered. It is not a statement that a school offers this as a degree; for that, check the institution’s own programme list.
Requirements change. These are the authorities that decide them — check them directly before committing to a route.
Last updated 23 September 2026.