The University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Education will launch a new Bachelor of Education in early childhood care and education this fall to address the state’s shortage of early childhood educators, officials announced Friday at the UH Manoa Children’s Center.

The program follows a full-time schedule with evening classes in a hybrid statewide format. Graduates will be eligible for a Hawaii early childhood teaching license for preschool through third grade. Scholarships for this program are also available.

The application deadline is March 1, though some students already have begun the screening process as early as this month. Interested applicants can find more information at 808ne.ws/4k3NIUL.

UH College of Education Dean Nathan Murata said there is “huge interest” in the new degree program, with interest already in the double digits.

Previously, students interested in early childhood education had to enroll in both an elementary and early childhood program to earn a dual degree or pursue a master’s degree in early childhood education.

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said she realized the rigor of earning two degrees was discouraging for those who wanted to teach preschool, leading many to opt out of continuing.

Many followed the early childhood elementary or early childhood special education track before advancing to graduate studies. With the introduction of this new bachelor’s program, students can now earn a dedicated degree in early childhood care and education, streamlining the path to licensure.

The program aligns with the National Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators and the Interstate New Teacher Assessment Consortium Model Core Teaching Standards, ensuring graduates meet national teaching benchmarks.

The Bachelor of Education in early childhood care and education was developed through a collaboration between UH Manoa faculty and early childhood education faculty from Honolulu Community College, Kauai Community College, UH Maui College and Hawaii Community College. Designed to ­reflect Hawaii’s cultural and educational landscape, the curriculum incorporates community input to address local needs.

“We aspire at the College of Education to get our students, our potential teachers, into the classroom and field experiences early on, and that exposure and experience is continuous, scaffolded throughout their entire program,” Murata said.

Rather than completing coursework first and fieldwork later, students will engage in hands-on classroom experience from the start of the program.

The program aims to provide candidates with the needed competencies and experiences to nurture and guide children from birth through age 8, laying the foundation for their learning and discovery within their individual sociocultural contexts.

Currently, the degree is offered only at the Manoa campus, but program directors are already in discussions to consult and partner with community colleges.

“As far as the other four-year (universities), we’d be certainly happy to have conversations with our partners at Hilo and/or West Oahu to see if this program can be replicated,” Murata said.

Luke said the idea for the program emerged two years ago following the launch of the Ready Keiki initiative, a statewide effort to ensure all Hawaii children are prepared for kindergarten.

“Because we are aggressively opening a lot of classrooms, one of the things that we didn’t want was to stress the teacher shortage,” Luke said. “We started the conversation with the university system and realized that to become a preschool teacher, you had to earn a dual degree — and it’s hard to do that.”

Luke said the Legislature has allocated funding over the past two years to address teacher shortages and is in discussions to secure funding for 50 new teachers and 50 new teacher assistants.

The new program streamlines the pathway to becoming a pre-K teacher by establishing a dedicated early childhood education track, separate from the broader K-8 program. The change aligns with statewide efforts to expand early learning access and highlights the importance of early childhood care and education.

The Ready Keiki initiative aims to provide preschool access for all Hawaii 3- and 4-year-olds by creating more than 400 classrooms statewide. However, the expansion of early childhood education remains limited by a shortage of qualified teachers.

“This is incredibly encouraging. It shows the power of partnerships and what we can do if we join forces together,” UH President Wendy Hensel said.

Hensel is confident the program will attract students and future educators while helping to meet Hawaii’s workforce needs, strengthen communities and invest in a brighter future.

“It’s such an extraordinary opportunity in Hawaii, given that we have a single set of public education K-12 and a single higher education institution,” Hensel said. “So, to be able to expand that into something that can build on itself in ways that’s really extraordinary and not possible in most places, it’s a really special thing.”