A church-housed preschool is the one staff position on this site where the church is running a regulated business inside a ministry, and the two have different rules. State licensing sets ratios, qualifications, facility standards, and records that the Discipline says nothing about, and a licensing violation is not a church matter — it is a state matter with consequences for the church’s property and insurance. Written here at three sizes, though a licensed program almost never supports a genuinely quarter-time director.

Flag, not answered here — and this one is larger than the others. Whether your program is licensed, license-exempt, or registered determines nearly everything about this job, and it varies by state and by what you offer. Some states exempt religious programs; some exempt part-day programs; some exempt neither. Start at childcare.gov’s state resources, then talk to your state’s licensing office and your insurer. Do not infer your status from what a neighboring church does.

Before writing this description, settle the structure question. Is the preschool a ministry of the church, a separate legal entity, or a tenant? That determines who employs the staff, whose insurance covers it, who owns the tuition income, and who is liable. Churches frequently discover they never decided. Involve your conference chancellor and your trustees (¶2533), and write the answer down.

The template

Job Description: Preschool Director

[Church Name] · Approved by SPRC [date] · Reviewed [date]

Reports to: [the pastor / preschool board] — name one supervisor Supervises: preschool teachers and aides Classification: [full-time / part-time] · [exempt / non-exempt] Hours: [ ] per week, [school-year / year-round] Compensation: [rate], reviewed annually

Purpose

To lead a safe, developmentally sound, licensed early-childhood program that serves families well and represents the church faithfully in the community.

Core responsibilities — FULL TIME (30–40 hrs)

Licensing and compliance

• Maintain the program’s licence in good standing; serve as the named point of contact for the licensing agency.
• Maintain required staff-to-child ratios at all times.
• Keep all required records: enrollment, immunization, emergency contacts, incident reports, staff files, training hours, and drills.
• Prepare for and respond to inspections; report any citation to the pastor and trustees immediately, not after it is resolved.

Staff

• Recruit, hire, train, schedule, and evaluate teachers and aides [state who approves hiring — the church's SPRC, a preschool board, or the director within a budget].
• Ensure every staff member’s background check, training hours, and credentials are current before their first day and continuously thereafter.
• Maintain substitute coverage that meets licensing standards.

Program

• Oversee curriculum and developmentally appropriate practice.
• Maintain the classroom environment, equipment, and supplies within budget.
• Handle enrollment, waiting lists, tuition billing, and family communication.

Church relationship

• Coordinate use of shared space with the church calendar — the single most common source of friction between a preschool and its host congregation.
• Report to [the pastor / council / preschool board] on a stated cycle.
• Work with trustees on facility, safety, and playground matters (¶2533).

At HALF TIME (15–20 hrs) — what changes

Realistic only for a small part-day program. Compliance, staff records, and licensing contact do not reduce — they are the same volume regardless of program size, and a church halving the hours without moving that work has simply made it happen after hours.

Move: tuition billing and enrollment administration to the church administrator; curriculum oversight to a lead teacher; family communication shared with lead teachers.

At QUARTER TIME (8–10 hrs) — what changes

Be skeptical. A licensed program with a quarter-time director usually means either the director is working unpaid hours or something is being missed — and what gets missed is documentation, which is what licensing inspects.

If the program is genuinely tiny or license-exempt, the role becomes: licensing contact, staff records, scheduling, and family communication, with a lead teacher carrying the classroom and the administrator carrying billing. Write it that way, and check the hours against reality after one term rather than after a year.

Qualifications

• Meets your state’s director qualification standard — this is set by licensing and is not negotiable; look it up before writing the posting.
• Early-childhood credential or degree as required by the state.
• Current CPR, first aid, and any state-mandated training.
• Administrative competence: records, budgets, schedules.

Screening — required

Background check to the standard your state’s licensing requires — which is often more extensive than the church’s ordinary check — before the first day, plus the church’s own Safe Gatherings-type training. State requirements are the floor, not the ceiling.

Working conditions

Program hours plus preparation; occasional evening events and parent meetings; active work with young children.

Adaptation notes

Settle the legal structure first. See the note at the top. Ministry, separate entity, or tenant — each has different answers for employment, insurance, tuition, and liability. This is a conversation with your trustees, your chancellor, and your insurer, and it should not be settled by whoever has been doing it a long time.

Insurance is a specific question, not a general one. Confirm with your carrier that the program, its staff, its playground, and its transport (if any) are covered, and that the coverage is reflected in the trustees’ annual insurance review (¶2533.2). Churches have discovered gaps here after an injury.

Shared space needs a written agreement, even when the preschool is a ministry of the church. Which rooms, which hours, who cleans, who stores what, what happens at Christmas and Holy Week. Put it in writing while everyone is getting along.

The director is not the church’s employee handbook. Preschool staff are covered by the church’s personnel policy unless the program is a separate entity with its own — and if it is separate, it needs its own, reviewed by counsel.

Licensing correspondence goes to the church too. A director who handles citations alone is protecting the church from information it needs. Route copies to the pastor and trustees chair as a standing rule.

Ratios are not aspirational. If staffing means the ratio can’t be met, the answer is to close a classroom for the day. Every church that has been through a licensing action learned this the expensive way.

Elsewhere

• Childcare.gov — state and territory resources — the starting point for your state’s licensing rules, ratios, director qualifications, and exemptions.
• Guidelines: Children’s Ministry 2025–2028 — the official UMPH booklet; useful for the ministry side, not the licensing side.
• UMC Minimum Insurance Requirements — GCFA — the coverage baseline the trustees measure against annually.
• Safe Gatherings — the church’s own screening standard, which sits alongside (not instead of) state requirements.
• Board of Trustees — the committee that owns the building the program runs in.
• Your state licensing office and your insurer. Both, before you post the job.