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Find­ing an afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online doesn’t need to be hard. It’s no secret that ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion is not the most lucra­tive career choice; work­ing pro­fes­sion­als in preschool, Head Start, and oth­er edu­ca­tion and child­care cen­ters can­not afford to spend a for­tune get­ting their bachelor’s degree. Plus, the sched­ule of a con­ven­tion­al on-cam­pus degree pro­gram doesn’t gen­er­al­ly mesh well with a teacher’s sched­ule; days are spent at the job, while nights are crit­i­cal for preparation.

That’s why online bachelor’s com­ple­tion pro­grams in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion have become so com­mon, but work­ing adults look­ing for advance­ment in the field should be care­ful. There are plen­ty of afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online pro­grams from region­al­ly accred­it­ed, trust­wor­thy col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties all over the US. The best deals usu­al­ly come from region­al pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties, many of which start­ed out as teacher’s col­leges and main­tain a com­mit­ment to the high­est stan­dards of teacher edu­ca­tion in their online ECE programs.

Ranking the Cheapest Early Childhood Education Degree Programs Online

To rank the 10 Most Afford­able Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Degree Online, Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter ran the num­bers on more than 500 CAEP and NCATE-accred­it­ed online ECE pro­grams in the US. There’s only one cri­te­ria for the most afford­able rank­ing: tuition rate, tak­en from IPEDS data gath­ered by the Nation­al Cen­ter for Edu­ca­tion Statistics.

Only region­al­ly accred­it­ed, CAEP and NCATE-approved pro­grams are includ­ed in the BDC rank­ing, so stu­dents can be cer­tain their online ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree meets the high­est standards.

1. Winston-Salem State University

When you’re look­ing for an afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online, Win­ston-Salem State University’s online BS in Birth-Kinder­garten Edu­ca­tion teach­es stu­dents to han­dle the needs of chil­dren from infan­cy until they are five years old and ready to move into tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion. It dis­cuss­es dif­fer­ent strate­gies to han­dle the needs of typ­i­cal and atyp­i­cal chil­dren who may be in the care of adults in a day­care or sim­i­lar pro­gram. Stu­dents qual­i­fy for licen­sure after com­plet­ing their online ECE programs.

Win­ston-Salem State Uni­ver­si­ty is an HBCU in the Tri­ad region of North Car­oli­na. WSSU had its begin­ning in 1892 as a teacher’s col­lege to train African-Amer­i­can teach­ers for the seg­re­gat­ed schools of the era. Today, Win­ston-Salem State is one of the most acclaimed pub­lic HBCUs in the nation, and remains a leader in teacher edu­ca­tion for the South. The col­lege is also known as a force for social mobil­i­ty, rank­ing in the top 10 of the Social Mobil­i­ty Index. The pro­gram is accred­it­ed by the Nation­al Coun­cil for Accred­i­ta­tion of Teacher Edu­ca­tion (NCATE) and the North Car­oli­na State Board of Education.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

2. Western New Mexico University

The West­ern New Mex­i­co Uni­ver­si­ty online BS in Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion is one of the most afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online pro­grams in the nation. WNMU pre­pares stu­dents to work in a day­care or pro­gram designed for the needs of young chil­dren. The pro­gram focus­es on a vari­ety of impor­tant aspects of a child’s life, includ­ing health and nutri­tion, child devel­op­ment, and fam­i­ly col­lab­o­ra­tion. By learn­ing how to get par­ents and fam­i­ly mem­bers involved in a child’s ear­ly edu­ca­tion, teach­ers set the child up for suc­cess when he or she moves into a tra­di­tion­al class envi­ron­ment at the ele­men­tary lev­el. The online ECE pro­grams teach stu­dents to han­dle the chal­lenges of a child’s ini­tial growth and devel­op­ment, as well as to pre­pare a child for their education.

West­ern New Mex­i­co Uni­ver­si­ty was found­ed in 1893 as a nor­mal school, train­ing teach­ers for the territory’s schools. While WNMU has become a com­pre­hen­sive uni­ver­si­ty, it has retained the focus on excel­lence and teach­ing. The online BS-ECE pro­gram allows stu­dents to prac­tice teach­ing before they com­plete their degree and it requires a teacher assess­ment using the Nation­al Eval­u­a­tion Series to ensure that teach­ers are able to han­dle the chal­lenges of edu­cat­ing young chil­dren. The high stan­dards help stu­dents pre­pare for their role as an edu­ca­tor and care­giv­er to young chil­dren, with the afford­abil­i­ty of one of the Southwest’s cheap­est ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree programs.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

3. University of Montana Western

Work­ing adults search­ing for the cheap­est ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree should look to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mon­tana West­ern’s online BS in Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion pro­gram. The BS degree in Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion focus­es on under­stand­ing the needs and behav­ior of chil­dren before work­ing with them in an edu­ca­tion­al set­ting. Stu­dents have a chance to take their online ECE pro­grams in a tra­di­tion­al class­room set­ting or online, so it offers flex­i­bil­i­ty for stu­dents who can­not attend tra­di­tion­al classes.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Mon­tana West­ern began in 1893 as the Mon­tana Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Nor­mal School, prepar­ing teach­ers for the schools sys­tem even before Mon­tana became as state. UMW’s online pro­grams pro­vide greater flex­i­bil­i­ty for stu­dents than tra­di­tion­al pro­grams, build­ing on years of expe­ri­ence in dis­tance edu­ca­tion. Stu­dents nev­er need to go to the cam­pus to take class­es and can com­plete their degree entire­ly online. It also uses a gate­way sys­tem that assess­es stu­dents’ abil­i­ties at dif­fer­ent stages of the degree pro­gram to ensure that they are pre­pared to han­dle the chal­lenges of car­ing for young children.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

4. North Carolina Central University

North Car­oli­na Cen­tral University’s online BS in Birth-Kinder­garten Teacher Edu­ca­tion pro­grams is an afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online pro­gram focus­ing on the needs of chil­dren from infan­cy until kinder­garten. The B‑K online ECE pro­grams pre­pare stu­dents to work in a day­care or in any posi­tion focus­ing on the needs of young chil­dren. The online pro­gram allows stu­dents to work from any loca­tion and gives work­ing adults the flex­i­bil­i­ty to focus on accom­plish­ing their goals as a stu­dent. It also qual­i­fies grad­u­ates for state licen­sure, or a spe­cial­ized cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for work­ing teach­ers and sec­ond-career teachers.

North Car­oli­na Cen­tral Uni­ver­si­ty has been a leader in African-Amer­i­can edu­ca­tion for gen­er­a­tions, since its begin­ning as a pri­vate school for black youth in 1910, then as a pub­lic teacher’s col­lege in 1923. Teacher edu­ca­tion has remained a pri­or­i­ty for over a cen­tu­ry, and remains one of the best teacher’s col­leges among HBCUs. Since the pro­gram is accred­it­ed by the Nation­al Coun­cil for Accred­i­ta­tion of Teacher Edu­ca­tion, or NCATE, it does com­ply with the stan­dards of the coun­cil. It’s also one of the cheap­est ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree pro­grams to be found in an online for­mat, mak­ing NCCU a real val­ue for North Car­oli­na teachers.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

5. Lewis-Clark State College

The Lewis-Clark State Col­lege online BAS in Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion for stu­dents who want to work with young chil­dren. The pro­gram allows you to take on posi­tions in edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams for chil­dren at an ear­ly age, includ­ing a head teacher in a Head Start pro­gram or an Ear­ly Head Start pro­gram, or to work as a con­sul­tant, in fam­i­ly sup­port pro­grams, or a vari­ety of posi­tions focus­ing on the needs of young chil­dren. LCSC’s online ECE pro­grams help with licen­sure and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by run­ning all stu­dents through a back­ground check and fin­ger­print­ing to ensure they are qual­i­fied to work with young children.

Like many region­al pub­lic insti­tu­tions, Lewis-Clark State Col­lege began as a nor­mal school, train­ing teach­ers for the school sys­tem in the “nor­mal” method of expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing in a real class­room. LCSC began just a few years after Idaho’s state­hood, in 1893, and over a cen­tu­ry lat­er remains com­mit­ted to the high­est stan­dards in teacher edu­ca­tion, even after expand­ing to a more com­pre­hen­sive col­lege. To reach Idaho’s rur­al res­i­dents, LCSC has also become a leader in online edu­ca­tion, includ­ing one of the most afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online pro­grams in the nation.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

6. University of Southern Mississippi

If you’re look­ing for an afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online, then the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Mississippi’s online BS in Child and Fam­i­ly Stud­ies pro­gram pre­pares stu­dents to work with chil­dren and their fam­i­lies in a wide vari­ety of set­tings. Since the pro­gram stress­es the inclu­sion of fam­i­ly in the edu­ca­tion of young chil­dren, grad­u­ates have many more options than sim­ply pre‑K or Head Start pro­grams, includ­ing fam­i­ly coun­sel­ing cen­ters and oth­er social ser­vices careers. South­ern Miss’ online ECE pro­grams rec­og­nize that edu­ca­tors are only part of the process and takes time to pre­pare stu­dents for the inte­gra­tion of fam­i­ly sup­port in a child’s ear­ly development.

Since its found­ing as a nor­mal school in 1910, the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Mis­sis­sip­pi’s focus on teacher train­ing and edu­ca­tion has remained firm. South­ern Miss’ online ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion pro­gram is accred­it­ed by the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Fam­i­ly and Con­sumer Sci­ences. The high stan­dards set by the asso­ci­a­tion ensure that you have the skills to han­dle the needs of fam­i­lies and their chil­dren. South­ern Miss’ com­mit­ment to acces­si­bil­i­ty has also made it one of the cheap­est ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree pro­grams in the US.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

7. Fort Hays State University

The Fort Hays State Uni­ver­si­ty online BS in Ear­ly Child­hood Uni­fied pre­pares stu­dents for licen­sure teach­ing both con­ven­tion­al and spe­cial edu­ca­tion from birth to 3rd grade. The online degree pro­gram allows grad­u­ates to take on posi­tions as an admin­is­tra­tor, a coor­di­na­tor or an ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tor. Since it takes a uni­fied approach to teacher edu­ca­tion, it allows you to take on more roles as a pro­fes­sion­al work­ing in child­hood edu­ca­tion. The Fort Hays online ECE pro­grams offer stu­dent teach­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and intern­ships to help pre­pare stu­dents for the tasks they will face when work­ing in ear­ly child­hood education.

Fort Hays State Uni­ver­si­ty had its ori­gin as a branch cam­pus of the Kansas State Nor­mal School, before grow­ing into its own inde­pen­dent teacher’s col­lege. Built on a for­mer mil­i­tary gar­ri­son, and orig­i­nal­ly set up as an agri­cul­tur­al research sta­tion, FHSU has always been in tune with Kansas’ needs. That con­tin­ues today with some of the bst and most afford­able online degree pro­grams in the nation, includ­ing its afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online program.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

8. Mayville State University

If you’re look­ing for the cheap­est ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree, Mayville State Uni­ver­si­ty may offer the pro­gram you need. Mayville State’s online ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion pro­grams include a BS in Edu­ca­tion with an Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion con­cen­tra­tion and a BA in Ear­ly Edu­ca­tion. Both online ECE pro­grams focus on meet­ing the needs of chil­dren at an ear­ly age. They also allow you to trans­fer in cred­its from oth­er pro­grams so that stu­dents can com­plete their under­grad­u­ate pro­gram in a short amount of time.

Mayville State Uni­ver­si­ty began in the same year North Dako­ta became a state, orga­nized as a nor­mal school to train teach­ers by the new leg­is­la­ture. With the spe­cial needs of North Dakota’s work­ing adults — in a state with vast rur­al areas that can be dif­fi­cult to trav­el in win­ter months — Mayville State has become a nation­al leader in online edu­ca­tion. Rea­son­able tuition rates have also earned MSU a rep­u­ta­tion as a best val­ue, a sta­tus that extends to their afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online program.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

9. Eastern Kentucky University

East­ern Ken­tucky University’s online Child and Fam­i­ly Stud­ies: Child Devel­op­ment bach­e­lor’s degree offers the edu­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tors need to work with young chil­dren. The pro­gram specif­i­cal­ly focus­es on the devel­op­ment of chil­dren and pro­vid­ing the edu­ca­tion they need to han­dle chal­lenges as they move for­ward into their ele­men­tary edu­ca­tion. In eight-week terms, with a flex­i­ble sched­ule, the online pro­gram allows you to work on your degree when it fits your sched­ule and the afford­able cost allows you to work on accom­plish­ing your goals while stay­ing in a budget.

East­ern Ken­tucky Uni­ver­si­ty has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the nation’s top online edu­ca­tors, with U.S. News & World Report rank­ing as one of the top online under­grad­u­ate edu­ca­tors in the nation. EKU began in 1906 as a state nor­mal school, when the for­mer Cen­tral Uni­ver­si­ty was bought out by the Com­mon­wealth. EKU’s roots in teacher edu­ca­tion con­tin­ue to shine through its edu­ca­tion pro­grams, includ­ing one of the most afford­able online ECE pro­grams anywhere.

Cost: $$$$$

10. Jackson State University

Jack­son State University’s online BS in Child Care and Fam­i­ly Edu­ca­tion is one of the most afford­able ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree online pro­grams in the nation. The pro­gram is a non-licen­sure pro­gram, so it does not give stu­dents a licen­sure exam. While it does not give stu­dents a teach­ing license, it does qual­i­fy grad­u­ates to work as teacher’s assis­tants, Head Start admin­is­tra­tors, pre-school direc­tors, and oth­er relat­ed careers. JSU’s Child Care and Fam­i­ly Edu­ca­tion pro­gram focus­es on ear­ly child­hood devel­op­ment and the inte­gra­tion of fam­i­ly into a child’s ear­ly devel­op­ment and education.

Jack­son State Uni­ver­si­ty is one of the largest HBCUs in the nation, and a leader in edu­ca­tion in Mis­sis­sip­pi. Found­ed in 1877, JSU has been meet­ing the needs of African-Amer­i­can stu­dents in Mis­sis­sip­pi for more than a cen­tu­ry and a half, espe­cial­ly through pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in cru­cial areas like teacher edu­ca­tion. The online Child Care and Fam­i­ly Edu­ca­tion pro­gram offers field expe­ri­ences that help you pre­pare for your career in ear­ly edu­ca­tion before you start work­ing as a teacher’s aide, a coor­di­na­tor or a sim­i­lar role in child­hood edu­ca­tion. With JSU’s empha­sis on afford­abil­i­ty, it’s one of the cheap­est online ECE pro­grams anywhere.

Cost: $$$$$

Want to learn more about the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion degree? Click here!

How Much Does an Early Childhood Education Bachelor’s Online Program Cost?

One of the best things about online degrees is that they pro­vide much more afford­able options than class­room edu­ca­tions. The fact that you won’t have to live on cam­pus or com­mute means that you’ll save even more mon­ey. Still, even with­in online pro­grams, you’ll find a wide range of prices. With some schools, you can get your degree for less than $5,000. With oth­ers, you might spend more than $20,000 on your edu­ca­tion. Schools on both ends of this spec­trum can pro­vide an excel­lent edu­ca­tion. Don’t dis­count a school because of a low cost.

Why the dis­par­i­ty? Tuition costs usu­al­ly depend on the kind of school you want to attend. For exam­ple, a degree from a pub­lic school will usu­al­ly cost far less than a degree from a pri­vate school. How­ev­er, you’ll find dif­fer­ent price ranges even with­in those two cat­e­gories. Take pub­lic schools, for exam­ple. You’d spend more mon­ey on a large flag­ship uni­ver­si­ty than you would spend attend­ing a small­er pub­lic school. With­in pri­vate schools, a small Chris­t­ian col­lege edu­ca­tion often costs less than a degree from a more elite lib­er­al arts school. Take some time to shop around before you make your final deci­sions, because some sup­pos­ed­ly afford­able pro­grams have hid­den fees.

Can I Get Financial Aid for an Online Early Childhood Education Degree?

Yes, you can absolute­ly find finan­cial aid for your edu­ca­tion. You have a few options to find the aid that you need. Start with reg­u­lar search engines. When you do, search specif­i­cal­ly for online col­leges for ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion with finan­cial aid. Some schools pro­vide more finan­cial aid options than oth­ers. If you’re already inter­est­ed in spe­cif­ic schools, check out their web­sites. You can also call schools to ask about finan­cial aid. Some online schools even accept Fed­er­al Stu­dent Aid (FAFSA). FAFSA can also help you find stu­dent loans and oth­er forms of assis­tance when you look for online col­leges for ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion with finan­cial aid. Take a look at their web­site for resources.

Online stu­dents may pay the same price in-state as out-of-state, and the same for part-time as for full-time. Ele­men­tary school teach­ers mov­ing into ear­ly child­hood will find online learn­ing an advan­tage as well.

What Will I Learn in an Early Childhood Education Program?

Enroll­ment in a bach­e­lor of sci­ence or bach­e­lor of arts degree in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion is the first step for aspir­ing preschool teach­ers. Admis­sion require­ments vary between schools, but you’ll gen­er­al­ly need a high school diplo­ma or asso­ciate degree from com­mu­ni­ty col­lege. Most bachelor’s pro­grams require 120 cred­it hours, but you may trans­fer cred­its or get cred­it for work expe­ri­ence in a degree com­ple­tion pro­gram. In addi­tion to gen­er­al edu­ca­tion, course­work for full-time online learn­ers may include:

  • class­room management
  • edu­ca­tion­al studies
  • human devel­op­ment
  • learn­ing environments

You may choose a spe­cial­iza­tion for your under­grad­u­ate degree, such as work­ing with stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties in ear­ly care. You may be required to do a practicum for hands-on learn­ing, but if you’re already work­ing in a care cen­ter, you may use your cur­rent job. Choose a non­prof­it col­lege for a rep­utable degree.

An online bachelor’s degree is a cre­den­tial that can help you in many ear­ly child­hood pro­grams, such as child­care cen­ter direc­tor. The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics sees increas­ing demand for ear­ly child­hood pro­fes­sion­als. Those with master’s degrees will be even more in-demand.

Where Can I Find Free Online Early Childhood Education Courses?

It’s entire­ly pos­si­ble to find free ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion cours­es online. How­ev­er, you won’t get col­lege cred­it for these cours­es. Nev­er­the­less, these cours­es can pro­vide excel­lent infor­ma­tion. They often help the fol­low­ing types of people:

  • Those who already work in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion and want a “refresh­er” course
  • Those who have earned a degree but want to learn the lat­est insights
  • Those who want a resume boost­er to get bet­ter jobs
  • Those who can’t afford to pay for a degree but who want to start their edu­ca­tion right away
  • Nan­nies, babysit­ters, and day­care work­ers who want sup­ple­men­tary knowledge

If you fall into any of those cat­e­gories or just want to take some free class­es, you can start with a Google search. Also, if you have a library card, you can access your local library’s data­bas­es for free. Many of those data­bas­es include free video cours­es, includ­ing cours­es on ear­ly child­hood education.

Ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion can sup­ply a won­der­ful, ful­fill­ing career path. An online degree can help you get start­ed. Still have ques­tions about earn­ing your degree online? Vis­it the con­tact page today.

Relat­ed Rank­ings:
25 Best Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Bachelor’s Pro­grams
Top 10 Edu­ca­tion Degree Pro­grams
Top 10 Online Bach­e­lor of Edu­ca­tion Degree Pro­grams
10 Cheap­est Online Bach­e­lor’s of Edu­ca­tion Degree Programs

15 Best Online Train­ing and Devel­op­ment Programs