States have long helped current and aspiring early care and education (ECE) professionals earn postsecondary credentials through investments in scholarships, tuition assistance, and other workforce initiatives. More recently, Workforce Pell grants, established by Congress in 2025 and launching this year, extend eligibility for Pell grants to short-term job training programs, offering states a new pathway to develop their ECE workforces and address current workforce shortages.
State officials have worked rapidly to interpret and administer new federal regulations governing Workforce Pell grants. As an initial step, many states have designated which high-wage, high-skill, and in-demand occupations will be eligible for Workforce Pell grants in their state and invited colleges and universities to submit aligned short-term programs for state and federal approval. Of the states that had achieved this milestone (32 as of August 18, 2026),[1] 15 had published Workforce Pell frameworks that include ECE occupations.[2]
This blog identifies states that include ECE occupations in their Workforce Pell frameworks and whether each state has determined those occupations to be “in-demand,” “high-wage,” or “high-skill” (indicating alignment with the state’s use of federal career and technical and workforce development dollars for those occupations).[3] While federal regulations allow states to designate short-term job training programs as eligible for Workforce Pell using other criteria—for example, if they connect to a registered apprenticeship—this analysis does not include states that used alternate criteria to approve ECE occupations.
Note about this analysis
This is a preliminary, evolving list based on published state Workforce Pell frameworks as of this writing. As states continue to publish and revise their eligible occupation lists, we will periodically update the information on this blog post. For additional background on Workforce Pell requirements and their relevance to the ECE field, see “Related Research”.
Fifteen states have included ECE-related occupations in their Workforce Pell frameworks by designating them as in-demand, high-wage, or high-skill. Each of these states includes multiple ECE-related occupations, although they differ in the number of occupations included and the approval mechanism.[4]
- Arkansas’ eligible occupation list includes Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool Teachers, and Teaching Assistants—each categorized as in-demand.
- Colorado requires occupations to meet at least two of the three statutory criteria (in-demand, high-skill, and/or high-wage); the state has approved Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool Teachers, and Special Education Teachers (Preschool).
- Delaware includes Self-Enrichment Teachers as in-demand, with Child Care as an approved course of study.
- Georgia designates Preschool Teachers and Special Education Teachers (Preschool) as in-demand.
- Illinois lists Preschool Teachers, Special Education Teachers (Preschool), and Teaching Assistants as in-demand.
- Kentucky split its ECE occupations across two criteria: Child Care Workers, Preschool Teachers, and Teaching Assistants are qualified as in-demand, while Education and Childcare Administrators and Special Education Teachers (Preschool) are qualified as high-wage.
- Maine includes Child Care Workers, Teaching Assistants, and Preschool Teachers as in-demand under their "essential, in-demand" criteria.
- Maryland used high-skill as the basis for including Education and Childcare Administrators and Special Education Teachers (Preschool), and a combined high-skill and high-demand designation to include Preschool Teachers.
- Michigan’s framework includes Teaching Assistants and Child Care Workers as in-demand.
- Missouri includes Teaching Assistants as meeting the high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand criteria.
- Nevada designates Child Care Workers, Education and Childcare Administrators, Special Education Teachers (Preschool), Preschool Teachers, and Teaching Assistants as in-demand.
- New Mexico defines “in-demand” for Workforce Pell using the priority sectors identified in its Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) plan, which includes Early Childhood Education and Care. As of this writing, however, the state has not publicly identified specific ECE occupations that will qualify under its Workforce Pell framework.
- North Carolina includes Preschool Teachers and Child Care Workers as meeting one of the three in-demand, high-wage, or high-skill criteria.
- Ohio includes Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool Teachers, Special Education Teachers (Preschool), Child Care Workers, and Teaching Assistants by designating them “critical” on the state's “top jobs” list (Ohio’s version of the demand-based criteria).
- South Dakota includes Preschool Teachers and Child Care Workers as in-demand.
The publication of states’ Workforce Pell frameworks marks a significant milestone toward new funding for short-term job training programs, but it is only the first step. The next implementation phase will occur within institutions of higher education (especially community colleges), where higher education leaders will decide which short-term programs to submit for state and federal approval and which to develop or adapt for a future submission. That is, colleges will decide next whether and when to submit short-term ECE programs for Workforce Pell approval. This decision will be heavily influenced by federal requirements: Short-term programs must maintain minimum thresholds for program completion and job placement and, starting in 2030, graduates’ wages. It remains to be seen how higher education leaders will assess ECE programs against these requirements, especially given low wages in the ECE field.
Workforce Pell creates a promising new opportunity to strengthen the ECE workforce, but seizing such opportunities (and keeping them available) will require close attention to ECE compensation and coordination between higher education, workforce development, and early childhood leaders.
Suggested citation: Warner, M., Harper, K., Castle, S., & Richards, D. (2026). These states have proposed early care and education programs for new Workforce Pell funding. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/1186b9955a
Notes
[1] See https://opportunitydata.org/workforce-pell-readiness.html for data source and tracking. Some states have also developed lists of eligible occupations at the regional level within their state—lists that are not included in this number.
[2] For this analysis, we considered the following five early childhood education-related occupations: Preschool Teachers (25-2011), Special Education Teachers - Preschool (25-2051), Education and Childcare Administrators (11-9031), and Child Care Workers (39-9011). ). Additionally, Delaware approved a Child Care course of study under the Self-Enrichment Teacher occupation (25-3021). The occupation titles and codes are drawn from the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system, which is developed by the federal Office of Management and Budget and used across government for occupation and employment data.
[3] Under federal statute and regulations, occupations considered to be “in-demand” must be consistent with a state’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) plan, while occupations designated as “high-wage” must be consistent with the state’s Perkins plan, supporting alignment between federal investments in financial aid, career and technical education, and workforce development.
[4] States may or may not have existing short-term programs for these occupations; however, including them on the list of eligible occupations could make new short-term programs related to the occupation eligible for Workforce Pell if the program is designed within the rule requirements.