BestOnlineCollege.org is an advertising-supported website. Many of the school and program listings that appear on this site are from partners who compensate us, and this compensation may affect how, where, and in what order listings appear (such as featured placements). This compensation does not influence our editorial content, evaluations, or rankings, which are determined independently using publicly available data. We do not review or feature every school or program available in the marketplace. Our goal is to provide accurate, unbiased information so you can make informed decisions. Read our full Advertiser Disclosure.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa has 5 accredited schools offering early childhood education programs, with tuition ranging from $9,936 to $51,141 per year for indexed programs. Cedar Rapids has a population of about 136,859. Median household income is $67,859 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 32.9% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the Cedar Rapids, IA metro area, the top-earning early childhood education-related role is Kindergarten Teacher at a median $63,360 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer early childhood education programs near Cedar Rapids, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Cedar Rapids 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 Cedar Rapids. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Iowa schools on the Iowa early childhood education page.
Cedar Rapids is part of the Cedar Rapids, IA metro area (BLS area code 16300). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Iowa statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preschool Teacher | $34,880 | Cedar Rapids, IA | $39,191 |
| Kindergarten Teacher | $63,360 | Cedar Rapids, IA | $71,191 |
| Preschool and Childcare Center Director | $47,370 | Cedar Rapids, IA | $53,225 |
| Teaching Assistant | $32,890 | Cedar Rapids, IA | $36,955 |
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 | 136,859 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $67,859 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 32.9% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 89.0 (below U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering early childhood education programs near Cedar Rapids. The closest is University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA (55.2 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Indian Hills Community College (73.7 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 Cedar Rapids are: Kindergarten Teacher ($63,360), Preschool and Childcare Center Director ($47,370), Preschool Teacher ($34,880). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Iowa statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Marion, IA is 7.2 miles from Cedar Rapids 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.
Cedar Rapids’s median household income of $67,859 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Cedar Rapids while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and Iowa 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 Cedar Rapids:
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 Iowa (2026)
