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NAEYC ECE Workforce Surveys

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Parents and Early Childhood Educators See Each Other as Partners

Preview Released: July 2025

In collaboration with MomsRising, NAEYC conducted this joint survey to better understand the relationships between early childhood educators and the families they serve. At a time when some policy debates and headlines suggest division between parents and educators, new research from NAEYC and MomsRising shows the opposite: strong trust, alignment, and shared priorities.

These preview findings offer timely support for those working together to protect inclusive, high-quality early learning while respecting the critical role that parents and child care providers play as partners in early childhood education.

Read more.

June 2025 ECE Workforce Survey - Now Closed

Thank you to all the directors, administrators, and owners working across all early care and education (ECE) settings who took the time to complete NAEYC’s June 2025 Workforce Survey.

Your individual experiences and collective voices are essential to deepening our nation’s understanding of what’s really happening in child care and early learning programs day-to-day—and how policy changes are impacting your work.

The survey is now closed.

Thank you again for your participation and for being part of this important effort.

 

Gracias a todos los directores, administradores y propietarios de entornos de cuidado y educación  de la primera infancia (ECE) que se tomaron el tiempo de completar la Encuesta de Fuerza Laboral de NAEYC de junio de 2025.

Sus experiencias individuales y voces colectivas son esenciales para profundizar la comprensión de nuestra nación sobre lo que realmente sucede en el sector del cuidado infantil y la educación temprana día a día, y cómo los cambios en las políticas están impactando su trabajo.

La encuesta ha finalizado.

Gracias nuevamente por su participación y por ser parte de esta importante iniciativa.

An Unsustainable Status Quo: We All Bear the Burdens of an Underfunded System

Released: February 2025

In January 2025, more than 10,000 early childhood educators from all states and settings – including large and small centers, family child care homes, faith-based programs, Head Start, and public school preschool programs – responded to a new early childhood education (ECE) workforce survey from NAEYC. The survey results and accompanying stories clearly illustrate how insufficient public investment in our ECE system burdens educators across all settings and the families they serve; and how those shared burdens threaten to further reduce our already insufficient supply of quality child care and early learning programs.

Read the Press Release.
Read the National Brief in English and Spanish.
Find your state-specific survey data (March 2025)

Liability Insurance Brief 

Released August 2024

In formal and informal conversations, many advocates have become familiar with the increasing – and increasingly frantic – reports from early childhood educators about the challenges they face from liability insurance costs and from coverage reductions, rejections, and denials.

To help us collectively better understand the scope of the problems, NAEYC hosted a liability-focused webinar with experts, advocates, and educators earlier this summer, and then fielded a survey, which was completed by 1,173 early childhood educators responsible for liability insurance in their programs.

NAEYC’s new brief contains findings from the survey, including ECE-specific context and implications; the impact on affordability, supply, and quality; and emerging solutions to help child care and early learning programs navigate insurance challenges.

Read the Press Release
Read the Survey Brief in English and Spanish

What ECE Program Leaders and Advocates Need to Know and Do
What Policymakers Need to Know and Do

“We Are NOT OK”: Early Childhood Educators and Families Face Rising Challenges as Relief Funds Expire

Released: February 2024

In January 2024, more than 10,000 early childhood educators (ECE) from all states and settings—including centers, family child care homes, faith-based programs, Head Start, and public preschool programs—responded to a new ECE field survey from NAEYC. The survey results and accompanying stories illustrate the ongoing challenges facing this field, the exhaustion of providers, the clear benefits of public funding, and the need for additional support following the loss of federal funding that helped stabilize the sector before it expired in September 2023. 

Read the Press Release
Read the National Brief in English and Spanish (February 2024)
Find your state-specific survey data (February 2024) 

About NAEYC Workforce Surveys

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, NAEYC has remained committed to understanding and sharing the breadth of the crisis and the challenges child care programs are facing across states and settings. You can access the one-page survey flyer, findings from our 2020-2022 surveys of child care providers below, and some resources on solutions here:  

Going Over the Child Care Cliff

Released: November 2023

Data from an October 2023 survey of child care providers and families – developed by the RAPID Survey Project in partnership with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) – shows child care providers and families are facing deep challenges following the September expiration of $25 billion in pandemic-related child care stabilization funds. 

As they expected, child care providers across the country are raising tuition rates, cutting educator wages and benefits, and serving fewer children following the end of their stabilization grants. This is exacerbating the child care crisis impacting families, educators, businesses, and young children. 

Read the survey brief in English or in Spanish; and link to the press release.

Uncertainty Ahead Means Instability Now: Why Families, Children, Educators, Businesses, and States Need Congress to Fund Child Care 

Released: November 2022

In October 2022, more than 12,000 early childhood educators from all states and settings—including faith-based programs, family child care homes, Head Starts, and child care centers—responded to a new ECE field survey from NAEYC. The results of this survey continue to show that relief helped, but uncertainty about the future is impacting the present. Staffing shortages caused by low compensation are leading to supply shortages that negatively impact families’ ability to work, children’s access to safe and quality care, and educators’ health and well-being. Far too many educators are considering leaving the field, threatening an exodus that—if not reversed with the support of public investments in the ECE workforce—will deepen the supply, quality, and affordability crises for years to come.

Read the National Brief (November 2022) 

Find your state-specific survey data (December 2022) 

Deep Dive Briefs (May 2022)

Saved But Not Solved: America’s Economy Needs Congress to Fund Child Care

Released: February 2022

In January 2022, as the Omicron COVID-19 variant surged, nearly 5,000 early childhood educators working across all states and settings—including faith-based programs, family child care homes, and small and large centers—responded to a brief check-in survey from NAEYC. The results of this survey show that emergency federal and state relief funds have provided critical support for stabilizing child care programs and prevented more widespread permanent program closures. However, Congress must now make the substantial, sustainable, long-term investments in affordable, high-quality child care and preK that are urgently needed for a successful and equitable economic recovery. If they do not, then the relief funds that are making such a difference now will have only delayed the collapse of our current child care system, and children, parents, educators, and businesses will pay the price, both immediately and far into the future. As these survey results and stories indicate, these investments cannot wait until another day and time.

  • 60% of respondents (2,927) worked in child care centers and family child care homes that received stabilization grants through the American Rescue Plan. Of those, 92% said that the grants helped their program stay open.
  • Two-thirds of respondents reported experiencing a staffing shortage that affected their ability to serve families; 52% of those with staffing shortages were forced to serve fewer children while 37% had a longer waiting list.
  • 75% of respondents reported that the end of stabilization grants would have a negative or highly negative effect on their programs. Of the respondents who said they knew enough about Build Back Better’s investments in child care and preK to answer the question, 89% agreed that it would “secure the future of our program,” including 86% of respondents from family child care homes and 85% of respondents from faith- based programs.

Read the Brief and the press release.

Progress and Peril: Child Care at a Crossroads

Released: July 2021 (state data updated with stories from the field released September 2021)

Federal and state relief funds have provided critical support for stabilizing child care programs and preventing more widespread permanent program closures, but they are just the beginning of what is needed to recover and rebuild. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed by more than 7,500 respondents between June 17 and July 5, 2021, working across all states and settings, shows that child care’s struggle to survive continues.

  • Four out of every five child care centers said that they had a staffing shortage, and 78% of respondents identified low wages as the main obstacle to recruitment of educators, while 81% percent said it's the reason they leave. 
  • More than one in every three respondents said they were considering leaving or shutting down their child care programs this year, and over half of minority-owned programs are reckoning with the possibility of permanent closure.

Now is the moment for Congress to act, by building on relief, and making the bold, sustainable, and necessary investments in quality child care and early learning that will respond to our communities’ short and long term needs and support families’ economic security and children’s success. 

Read the Brief

You can also read the press release here and state-by-state data is also available for 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Please note the variation in the total number of individuals from the national survey to the state survey data. More than 10,000 individuals participated in the survey during the time that it was open. However, the number of responses from six states was well above the mean, so a smaller random sample from those states was selected for the national-level analysis to minimize a skew in the data results. All respondents are included in the state-level analyses, which is why the total number of respondents in the state-by-state data is greater than the number of respondents referenced in the national data analysis. For additional information on the survey methodology, please see page 3 of the national “Progress and Peril” brief. In addition, because this survey was entirely voluntary and results in a nonrandomized sample, NAEYC recommends continuing to seek official sources from states tracking data such as program closures, enrollment, and attendance.

Sacrificing to Stay Open, Child Care Providers Face a Bleak Future Without Relief

Released: December 2020 

The essential yet chronically undervalued child care sector has sacrificed and struggled to serve children and families since the start of the COVID pandemic. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed between November 13–29, 2020, by more than 6,000 respondents working in child care centers and family child care homes shows that the crisis facing child care is as consistent and devastating today as it was in March and in July. With 56% of child care centers saying they are losing money every day that they remain open, programs are confronting an unsustainable reality, even as they are taking desperate measures - putting supplies on credit cards, drawing down personal savings, and laying off staff - to remain viable for the children and families they serve. Yet despite the steps they are taking to save themselves, the math on their bottom line does not work, and federal relief is needed to stabilize and support this essential sector. 

Read the Brief 

You can also read the press release here, and state data from the November survey for 29 states is available here. 

Families Suffer Without Relief from Congress

Released: September and October 2020

In the absence of federal relief, struggling child care programs trying to remain open to serve children and families in their communities are being faced with stark choices. Learn more about what programs are doing, and how families are paying the price via two one pagers from NAEYC based on our survey data and follow-ups: Families Suffer Without Relief From Congress and Child Care Programs Are Being Forced to Raise Tuition or Close for Good.

Brief: Holding On Until Help Comes: A Survey Reveals Child Care’s Fight to Survive

Released: July 13, 2020

The lack of sufficient public investment in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced child care programs, educators, and families into a series of impossible choices with devastating consequences. Only 18% of programs are confident they will be able to stay open past a year without public assistance. 50% of minority-owned programs are certain they will have to close without the help they need. 86% of child care programs who responded to our survey are serving fewer children now than they were prior to the pandemic and 63% of programs across all settings expect to be operating at or below 80% of enrollment past the end of this summer. This data makes it clear that if help doesn’t come soon in order to save child care, there will be little left of child care to save.

Read the Brief 

Child Care & the Paycheck Protection Program 

Released: May 12, 2020

A NAEYC brief highlights the experiences of nearly 500 child care programs across the country who have applied for the Paycheck Protection Program. Based on respondent feedback, we have learned that while the PPP has bought some child care programs critical time with which to pay themselves and their employees and cover some of their fixed costs, entire segments of the market, particularly family child care homes, have been essentially unable to access the program and its benefits. 

The viability of child care programs—and therefore the viability of our nation’s economy—is dependent on substantial, additional, and direct investments, and we look forward to working with Congress to make these investments a reality.

Read the Brief 

From the Front Lines: The Ongoing Effect of the Pandemic on Child Care 

Released: April 17, 2020

NAEYC releases survey data that explores the ongoing impact of the pandemic and the solutions that have been put forth so far. From April 2–10, 2020 more than 5,000 providers responded to the survey, from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Together, these survey respondents alone serve upwards of 215,000 children.

Read the Brief 

At this point in time, nearly 50% of respondents reported that their program was completely closed, with an additional 17% closed to everyone except children of essential personnel. Of programs that remained open in some way, 85% of respondents reported that they were operating at less than 50% of their enrollment capacity.

Child Care in Crisis: Understanding the Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic 

National Brief released: March 17, 2020; State-by-State Brief released on March 31, 2020

On March 12, 2020, as the country was beginning to recognize the ways in which the spread of the coronavirus would jeopardize lives and livelihoods, NAEYC developed a brief survey asking child care programs to share the challenges they were expecting to face and to comment on what they needed to protect children, families, and our nation’s supply of child care programs. 

By March 25, 2020 11,500 individuals from all 50 states and the District of Columbia had responded to the survey, 34% of whom work in center-based child care, and 53% who work in family child care homes. 

Ultimately, nearly 50% of respondents noted that they would not survive a closure of more than two weeks without significant public investment and support that would allow them to compensate and retain staff, pay rent or mortgages, and cover other fixed costs. An additional quarter of respondents did not know how long they could close and still re-open without support.

*Official rules for child care sweepstakes (June 2025) can be found here.  

Topics: Other Topics, Public Policy and Advocacy
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