Educational Instruction and Library
Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
Instruct preschool-aged students, following curricula or lesson plans, in activities designed to promote social, physical, and intellectual growth.
MAY 2025 · OCCUPATIONAL WAGES
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
Source wage group: Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Median annual wage$38,140USD per year · Published 50th percentile
Median hourly wage$18.34USD per hour · Published 50th percentile
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $28,990 | $13.94 |
| 25th | $34,530 | $16.60 |
| 50th · Median | $38,140 | $18.34 |
| 75th | $47,550 | $22.86 |
| 90th | $61,390 | $29.52 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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THE WORK BEHIND THE TITLE
What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
After School TeacherChild Care Assistant TeacherChild Development TeacherChildcare TeacherChildhood Development TeacherDay Care TeacherDaycare TeacherEarly Childhood EducatorEarly Childhood TeacherGroup TeacherHome-Based Preschool TeacherInfant Teacher
Expand more title examples (13)
Montessori ParaprofessionalMontessori Preschool TeacherMontessori TeacherNursery School TeacherNursery TeacherPre-Kindergarten Teacher (Pre-K Teacher)Pre-School TeacherPrekindergarten TeacherPreschool TeacherStart TeacherSubstitute Preschool TeacherTeacherToddler Teacher
Typical tasks
- Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills.
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order.
- Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
- Serve meals and snacks in accordance with nutritional guidelines.
- Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, and changing their diapers.
Expand more tasks (28)
- Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and needs, determine their priorities for their children, and suggest ways that they can promote learning and development.
- Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, storytelling, and field trips.
- Identify children showing signs of emotional, developmental, or health-related problems and discuss them with supervisors, parents or guardians, and child development specialists.
- Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- Assimilate arriving children to the school environment by greeting them, helping them remove outerwear, and selecting activities of interest to them.
- Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicate those objectives to children.
- Arrange indoor and outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, and safety.
- Teach proper eating habits and personal hygiene.
- Demonstrate activities to children.
- Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
- Enforce all administration policies and rules governing students.
- Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
- Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.
- Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.
- Organize and label materials and display students' work in a manner appropriate for their ages and perceptual skills.
- Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
- Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of preschool programs.
- Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guests, or other experiential activities and guide students in learning from those activities.
- Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.
- Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
- Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.
- Administer tests to help determine children's developmental levels, needs, and potential.
- Attend staff meetings and serve on committees as required.
- Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
- Perform administrative duties, such as hall and cafeteria monitoring and bus loading and unloading.
Skills used in this work
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Expand more skills (29)
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
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