Emerging Trends in Early Childhood Jewish Education
While ElevatEd’s focus has been on recruitment, other important trends and needs have emerged since we began in 2023.
The field of early childhood Jewish education (ECJE) continues to navigate complex and evolving challenges shaped by demographic, economic, and cultural shifts since ElevatEd was envisioned during the COVID-19 pandemic. These trends illustrate the widening gap between educator preparation and field demands, underscoring the importance of an adaptive model.
1. Shifting Workforce Demographics and Lack of Experience
The “great resignation” and pandemic highlighted early childhood educators as frontline workers and sparked initiatives like ElevatEd to tackle critical staffing shortages.
Recruitment challenges have evolved: the field now includes fewer Jewish-identified educators (55% of ElevatEd’s emerging educators are not Jewish) and more early-career professionals with limited training (43% hold a college degree). Changes such as more dual-income households have diminished the traditional pipeline of Jewish mothers, who were often mission-aligned educators.
Meanwhile, teachers face increasingly complex classrooms with minimal supports and stagnant pay (Compensation and Credentialing, 2023).
This growing gap between teacher identity, educational background, and the increasing needs of families means directors must invest significant time and resources in training, yet turnover remains high—leading to costly, repeated retraining cycles and ongoing workforce instability.
2. Increasingly Complex Student and Family Needs
Teachers are increasingly serving children with a broader range of developmental and behavioral differences than ever before (CDC, 2025; National Library of Medicine, 2022).
Many educators lack adequate preparation for managing challenging behaviors, sensory regulation, and family crises. Research points to screen time and digital overstimulation compounding attention and socioemotional difficulties, further disrupting classrooms (APA, 2025; National Library of Medicine, 2023). At the same time, pressures to introduce academic readiness skills earlier—driven by parental expectations and alignment with school systems—stretch teachers trained primarily in play-based learning.
Another critical challenge is that many children are pre-diagnosis, and the current teacher qualifications often fall short of supporting these children effectively. Hiring and training shadow aides or facilitators for children requiring additional support is a significant hurdle. Expecting teachers without sufficient training or experience to manage these complex needs is unrealistic; this gap contributes to teacher burnout and turnover, which in turn lowers the educational quality and reputation of early childhood Jewish education programs.
3. Teacher Mental Health and Workforce Stability
Teacher wellbeing remains under acute strain. Nationally, educator absenteeism has surged post-pandemic, with increasing workdays lost due to anxiety and burnout (Brookings Institute, 2025). Directors cite exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and increased turnover as persistent barriers. Many advocate for structural changes—particularly dedicated floaters, substitute networks, and peer mental health supports—to stabilize classrooms and sustain a sense of community care.
4. Enrollment and Market Dynamics
Jewish early childhood programs face increasing competition from public universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) programs offering free tuition, resulting in reduced enrollment among 3- and 4-year-olds (Rosenstein, 2024). To offset these losses, some centers are expanding infant and toddler offerings. Though costly, these respond to market demand shifts.
At the same time, demographic shifts including a significant drop in U.S. birthrates mean fewer children overall are entering the system (CDC, 2025; NPR, 2025).
Furthermore, the geographic redistribution of Jewish families from urban to suburban areas often leaves gaps in Jewish early childcare availability. Families moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and Southeast are reshaping regional demand (Prizmah, 2025; Economic Innovation Group, 2024). In some areas, this may be balanced by the surge in Jewish participation although we don’t yet know how long that will last (JFNA, 2025).
Finally, Jewish early childhood centers often face challenges competing on hours, Jewish holiday observances, and tuition costs relative to secular childcare options.
5. Leadership and Director Support Needs
Directors in early childhood Jewish education are often expected to “lead while teaching,” managing classrooms, recruiting and hiring staff, addressing family crises, marketing, balancing budgets, and handling human resources, all with little administrative support. This broad scope demands expertise not only in early childhood education but also in business, finance, and organizational management—skills that most ECE or Child Development degrees do not adequately provide, as they tend to focus on the arts, social, and behavioral sciences (Talin and Magid, 2021; Ryan, 2011).
Compounding the challenge, boards or supervisors who oversee these directors often have business backgrounds without exposure to child development, leading to tensions where administrative decisions may overlook the educational realities on the ground. Many directors, lacking formal training or confidence in business and leadership areas, shy away from asserting the authority they need to lead effectively. This results in weakened leadership, missed opportunities for school growth, and ultimately affects the stability and quality of Jewish early childhood education.
6. Rising Operational Costs and Financial Pressures
Noncompetitive compensation remains a major barrier to recruiting and retaining quality educators.
Directors must juggle underfunded operational budgets while balancing rising costs for supplies and services against the need to keep tuition affordable and competitive, as families may choose less expensive secular childcare if Jewish programs are too costly. Expanded UPK initiatives divert children and certified teachers to public programs, intensifying financial pressures. Some ECJE programs operating within public frameworks face higher costs with lower revenues and struggle to maintain their Jewish mission during school hours. Institutions also face steep security costs to ensure safe learning environments, with expenses nearly doubling in recent years (Teach Coalition, 2025).
Additionally, infant care is especially costly and space-intensive (KidsData, 2022). Many centers housed in larger institutions such as synagogues contend with competing priorities for space use (weekday infant care versus weekend religious school) often limiting infant care availability which influences family choices.
These intersecting financial and operational challenges require innovative funding strategies and strategic management to sustain and grow the field.
7. Jewish Identity, Diversity, and Global Awareness
In response to rising antisemitism and societal polarization, Jewish early childhood education programs are deepening their commitment to Jewish identity and Israel education as central pillars of their mission. Many programs report growing enrollment of interfaith and multifaith families, reflecting broader demographic realities and underscoring the importance of creating welcoming environments that foster belonging.
As one of the few areas of Jewish communal life with substantial non-Jewish family participation, Early Childhood Jewish Education holds unique potential to build real allyship for the Jewish community, improve communal security, and decrease antisemitism. Educators consistently express a strong need for professional development tools that enable them to engage children and families around complex identity topics in developmentally appropriate and sensitive ways.
How You Can Help
For communal leaders and funders, these findings are a call to action: community-level networks and infrastructure are not “extras” but are essential levers for workforce quality and long-term retention in Jewish early childhood education.
As educator voices and field data both confirm, strong community support (like ElevatEd, mentoring cohorts, and cross-institutional PD) breaks down isolation, offers targeted professional growth, and creates a sense of belonging that helps teachers stay and thrive, even amid sector-wide instability. With widening demographic gaps, rising classroom complexity, and fierce competition for both families and talent, the communities that invest in ecosystem-level supports will be the ones who sustain quality, resilient ECJE programs - and with them, vibrant Jewish life for the next generation.
Now is the moment to double down on collaborative, strategic funding and leadership. ElevatEd’s early results and the lived experience of educators underscore: when communal leaders work together to lift the field, everyone wins, our institutions, our children and their families.
This article was originally drafted by Orna Siegel. Subsequent to the initial draft, thoughtful input, editorial refinements, and substantive additions were provided by ElevatEd's community coordinators and members of ElevatEd's Director’s Advisory Council. These valued contributors, representing each of ElevatEd’s 13 communities, enriched the content with their insights and expertise from work in the field. The collaborative process culminated in this final published version, reflecting the collective voice and experience of ElevatEd’s leadership, community partners, and early childhood directors.
