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Panama City, Florida has 5 accredited schools offering early childhood education programs, with tuition ranging from $2,026 to $13,378 per year for indexed programs. Panama City has a population of about 34,211. Median household income is $61,125 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 25.5% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL metro area, the top-earning early childhood education-related role is Kindergarten Teacher at a median $51,630 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer early childhood education programs near Panama City, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Panama City city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Panama City. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Florida schools on the Florida early childhood education page.
Panama City is part of the Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL metro area (BLS area code 37460). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Florida statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preschool Teacher | $34,000 | Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL | $34,943 |
| Kindergarten Teacher | $51,630 | Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL | $53,063 |
| Preschool and Childcare Center Director | $47,180 | Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL | $48,489 |
| Teaching Assistant | $32,680 | Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL | $33,587 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 34,211 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $61,125 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 25.5% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 97.3 (below U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering early childhood education programs near Panama City. The closest is Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, FL (6.6 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Pensacola State College (96.6 miles). 5 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying early childhood education-related roles near Panama City are: Kindergarten Teacher ($51,630), Preschool and Childcare Center Director ($47,180), Preschool Teacher ($34,000). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Florida statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Lynn Haven, FL is 3.0 miles from Panama City and has its own set of local early childhood education programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Panama City’s median household income of $61,125 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Panama City while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and Florida public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Panama City:
Data verified: July 30, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Online Early Childhood Education Programs in Florida (2026)
