A career teaching young children is highly rewarding. By focusing on the early childhood education field, you’ll have a direct influence on the formative lives of young learners. Entry-level opportunities to enter this field are available to those with a two-year degree or less; however growth opportunities and earning potential expand as you advance your education, and a bachelor’s degree is valuable for those who are passionate about a career focused on the early childhood education setting.

Granite State College offers two bachelor’s degree options in Early Childhood Education:

• A pathway that leads to New Hampshire Department of Education certification in Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education.
• A non-certification pathway focused on Department of Health and Human Services credentialing coursework.

This program is available to new students in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. See Availability in Your State for full details.

The Early Childhood certification will prepare individuals to teach children in public schools beginning at the nursery school level to Grade 3, and Early Childhood Special Education certification will prepare individuals to work with infants, toddlers, and children who are at risk of being identified as needing special education services or who are already identified as needing special education services.

This is a field-based program for qualified participants working or volunteering in an approved program or education setting. The key components of this program include mentorship of the teacher candidates with highly skilled professionals in the field, the hands-on experience of working with children in educational settings, and the opportunity to build your teaching capacity over time.

This program is designed for individuals seeking career options in early childhood care settings. Courses in this program prepare individuals to be qualified early childhood education and child care providers.  This major offers a model curriculum which addresses standards set forth by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The completion of this degree qualifies individuals for the Early Childhood credential through the New Hampshire Child Development Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services.

This degree does not lead to public school teacher certification through the New Hampshire Department of Education.

Updated June 2021. See catalog for full list of course requirements and degree outcomes for Certification and Non-Certification degrees.

Granite State College is proud to support the New Hampshire Department of Education and their iSocial State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG). The goal of this grant is to improve social-emotional outcomes of infants, toddlers and young children with disabilities (birth to age 5) through the implementation of the evidence-based Pyramid Model Framework.

To learn more about the courses and assignments that align to this model, please visit granite.edu/isocial.