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Indianapolis, Indiana has 5 accredited schools offering early childhood education programs, with tuition ranging from $5,154 to $34,891 per year for indexed programs. Indianapolis has a population of about 1,550,488. In the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN metro area, the top-earning early childhood education-related role is Preschool and Childcare Center Director at a median $58,540 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer early childhood education programs near Indianapolis, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Indiana schools on the Indiana early childhood education page.
Indianapolis is part of the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN metro area (BLS area code 26900). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Indiana statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preschool Teacher | $37,030 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | $38,694 |
| Kindergarten Teacher | $56,360 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | $58,892 |
| Preschool and Childcare Center Director | $58,540 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | $61,170 |
| Teaching Assistant | $34,550 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | $36,102 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 95.7 (below U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering early childhood education programs near Indianapolis. The closest is American College of Education in Indianapolis, IN (0.9 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Indiana University-Bloomington (46.8 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 Indianapolis are: Preschool and Childcare Center Director ($58,540), Kindergarten Teacher ($56,360), Preschool Teacher ($37,030). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Indiana statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Lawrence, IN is 10.3 miles from Indianapolis 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.
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 Indianapolis:
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 Indiana (2026)
