Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
Instruct preschool-aged students, following curricula or lesson plans, in activities designed to promote social, physical, and intellectual growth.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Instructing
- Active Listening
- Learning Strategies
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
- Social Perceptiveness
Key knowledge
- Education and Training
- English Language
- Public Safety and Security
- Customer and Personal Service
- Psychology
- Administration and Management
- Administrative
- Sociology and Anthropology
What the work involves
- Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
- Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, and changing their diapers.
- 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.
- Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
- Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, storytelling, and field trips.
- Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Identify children showing signs of emotional, developmental, or health-related problems and discuss them with supervisors, parents or guardians, and child development specialists.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Social, Artistic, Conventional.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (28.8% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years (32.6%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (34.9%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 3: Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 85% of occupations compared | 89% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Moderate | Lower on dealing with the public than 57% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Moderate | Higher on teamwork than 58% of occupations compared | 60% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 86% of occupations compared | 35% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 92% of occupations compared | 32% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 83% of occupations compared | 42% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 70% of occupations compared | 30% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Higher on consequence of error than 55% of occupations compared | 28% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: moderate
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 2.17%
- Contact with others about half the time: 4.66%
- Contact with others most of the time: 4.07%
- Constant contact with others: 89.11%
n = 31, Incumbent 08/2019
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 34.61%
- Fairly important: 0.34%
- Important: 6.01%
- Very important: 23.04%
- Extremely important: 36.01%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2019
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 7.43%
- Important: 7.57%
- Very important: 25.37%
- Extremely important: 59.63%
n = 31, Incumbent 08/2019
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 7.04%
- Very little freedom: 14.08%
- Limited freedom: 20.01%
- Some freedom: 34.98%
- A lot of freedom: 23.9%
n = 31, Incumbent 08/2019
Time pressure
- Never: 8.99%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 32.28%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 25.58%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 8.57%
- Every day: 24.57%
n = 31, Incumbent 08/2019
Conflict situations
- Never: 6.93%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 33.19%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 10.96%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 7.32%
- Every day: 41.61%
n = 31, Incumbent 08/2019
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 13.8%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 29.24%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 12.68%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 14.75%
- Every day: 29.52%
n = 31, Incumbent 08/2019
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 27.64%
- Fairly serious: 10.73%
- Serious: 13.25%
- Very serious: 23.03%
- Extremely serious: 25.35%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2019
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O*NET-SOC 25-2011.00 · SOC 25-2011 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8