A survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) of more than 10,000 early childhood educators across the country illustrates how insufficient public investment in our early childhood education system burdens educators across all settings and the families they serve; and how it threatens to further reduce an already insufficient supply of quality child care and early learning programs.
The survey, NAEYC’s 10th since 2020, shows that:
- It’s increasingly expensive to run childcare and early learning programs.
- When public dollars dry up, and costs continue to rise, programs are forced to raise tuition or close.
- Families need childcare but can’t afford rising costs.
- Educators want to work but can’t afford to accept low wages.
- Educators who do stay are facing increased burnout.
- Respondents know of more childcare programs that are closing than are opening.
“Families can’t afford to pay more, and educators can’t afford to earn less,” said Michelle Kang, NAEYC CEO. “As costs rise, more early childhood educators will leave the field, and more programs will shut down — deeply impacting communities and threatening the stability of our economy.”
The survey’s key findings are in alignment with previous surveys and include:
- Among program administrators who responded to the survey, 32% reported paying more for rent, 45% reported paying more for property insurance, and 46% reported paying more for liability insurance.
- The rising cost of insurance was significantly more challenging for respondents working in family childcare programs, with 50% reporting paying more for liability insurance and 62% reporting paying more for property insurance.
- More than half of program administrators (55%) overall reported they had to raise tuition in the last year.
- At the same time 55% of program administrators indicated they were underenrolled relative to their preferred capacity, with the top reasons being that parents can’t afford to enroll their children (41%), compensation is too low to recruit and retain enough qualified staff (37%), and they don’t have enough staff (36%). A lack of demand for services was the least often selected reason (7%) for under-enrollment
Furthermore, among all survey respondents:
- 47% reported that their sense of burnout had worsened in the last year, especially from low wages, the physical and mental demands of the job, and insufficient resources to deal with children’s developmental and behavioral challenges.
- 26% reported they were considering leaving the ECE field in the next year, but would stay with higher wages (60%), more support addressing children’s behavioral challenges (30%), and more respect (20%).
- 56% were aware of at least one program closing in their community in the last year, and 9% were aware of 4 or more programs closing.
The survey included early childhood educators from all states and settings, including faith-based programs, family childcare homes, Head Starts, and childcare centers. The full NAEYC survey brief and methodology can be found at www.naeyc.org/ece-workforce-surveys.
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