Career
Kindergarten teachers, except special education
Teach children the foundations of school.
$62,680
Median pay
-0.3%
Job growth, 2025–35
11,900
Openings a year
Bachelor's degree
Typical education
4 years
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
- Prepare children for later grades by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
- Instruct students individually and in groups, adapting teaching methods to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills.
- Demonstrate activities to children.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on people & care, then creation & expression?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Social Perceptiveness, Instructing, Active Listening, Monitoring.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
4 years of education after high school (bachelor's degree), for a median of $62,680 a year and 11,900 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Teaching (by Grade Level)See the degree →
- Bilingual and Multilingual EducationCIP 13.0201
- Teacher Education, Multiple LevelsCIP 13.1206
- Montessori Teacher EducationCIP 13.1207
- Waldorf/Steiner Teacher EducationCIP 13.1208
- Kindergarten/Preschool Education and TeachingCIP 13.1209
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education$63,970 · -0.4%
- Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education$38,140 · +4.5%
- Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education$64,370 · -0.4%
- Special Education Teachers, Elementary School
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.