Wage Enhancement Program – Leaders
Wage Enhancement Program
In 2022, the City of New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Youth and Families committed $2.4M to pilot a program designed to improve the retention and recruitment of early childhood educators across the city by providing wage enhancements in the 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 program years. This investment is also supported by state funds.
2025-2026 Wage Enhancement
Round 10
During the 2025–26 Program Year, reduced City resources limited the funding available for the Wage Enhancement Program, resulting in modified educator stipend rounds. Agenda for Children located funding to support Round 10 wage enhancements.
For more information about Round 10, please refer to the FAQ linked below:
Round 9
Agenda for Children also issued a modified round of educator stipends (Round 9) in December 2025. For more information about Round 9, please refer to the 2025-2026 Wage Enhancement Program Update Memo and to the December 2025 Round 9 Educator FAQs linked below.
2024-2025 Wage Enhancement
For the 2024-25 program year, early childhood educators who were employed by a participating licensed Type III early learning program and who met the requirements in each of the employment verification windows were potentially eligible to receive $1,000 every three months between December 2024 and August 2025.
Please note: For information about the 2025-26 program year, please refer to the 2025-2026 Wage Enhancement Program Update Memo.
2024-2025 Wage Enhancement Round Timeline
| Round of Wage Enhancement | Employment Period | Documentation Due Dates | Wage Enhancement Payment Distribution Date | Proof of Payment Due to Agenda |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three months per round. Payments go out following the last month of the round. | Teachers must work for at least 30 hours for two weeks in each of the three months listed for each of the rounds | Required documents due, a.k.a. proof of ID and proof of hours worked (paystubs or timesheets) | Expected date of payment to site.* | Proof of wage enhancement payment to teachers due 6 weeks after the provider receives the funds. |
| Round 5 | September 2024 October 2024 November 2024 | Dec. 1, 2024 | Dec. 18, 2024* | Jan. 12, 2025 |
| Round 6 | December 2024 January 2025 February 2025 | Mar. 1, 2025 | Mar. 18, 2024* | Apr. 5, 2025 |
| Round 7 | March 2025 April 2025 May 2025 | Jun. 1, 2025 | Jun. 14, 2025* | Jul. 26, 2025 |
| Round 8 | June 2025 July 2025 August 2025 | Sept. 1, 2025 | Sept. 13, 2025* | Oct. 25, 2025 |
*Note: Sites only receive funds on this date if all required documents are turned in by the due date.
2024-25 Wage EnHancement FAQs
Who is eligible for the wage enhancement?
All eligibility requirements below must be met and documented in order for teachers to receive payments:
- Provider Eligibility Requirements:
- Be a licensed Type III early learning program
- Operate in Orleans Parish
- Be currently open and operating with enrolled students
- Be able to submit all required documentation (see below)
- Educator Eligibility Requirements:
- Be employed as an early childhood educator (lead teacher, assistant teacher, teacher aide, or floater) at a Type III early learning center in Orleans Parish
- Work in an infant, toddler, three-year-old, or four-year-old classroom
- Receive payment through their employer’s payroll with state and federal taxes withheld from their paycheck
- Work an average of 30 hours per week during each of the three consecutive months listed in the designated three-month period (verified through payment documentation)
- Please Note: Paid maternity leave, paid sick leave, and paid vacation time is counted towards the required 30 hours per week average.
How much are educators eligible to receive?
For the 2024-25 program year, educators were potentially eligible to receive $1,000 every three months between December 2024 and August 2025 upon meeting requirements, for a total of up to $4,000.
Please note: This is a wage enhancement program. Educators are required to receive these funds in addition to their regularly earned pay.
If my early learning program hasn’t taken part in the Wage Enhancement program before, how do we apply to participate?
If you haven’t participated before but you believe your site is an eligible provider for the wage enhancement, please email wageenhancement@noeen.org to receive more details about how to participate in the program.
What documentation will I need for the application?
- Virtually signed attestation agreeing to the terms of participation
- Submit monthly documentation outlined below via a special link in the NOEEN Scheduler
- Submit initial proof of identification for each teacher (one of the following):
- State Driver License
- U.S. Passport
- Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card
- Employment Authorization Document Card
- Submit proof of payment for at least 30 hours per week for each month of the verification window for each teacher (this can be a single document such as a QuickBooks or accounting software report, or individual pay stubs)
- Submit proof of wage enhancement payment to teachers within two weeks of receiving funds from Agenda for Children, to include:
- Employee’s name
- Date of payment
- Total payment
- Payment method (can include canceled checks or accounting software reports as proof of payment)
Other important additional eligibility and payment information:
- For each month within the three employment periods, we recommend submitting paystubs/timesheets for the entire month, so we can be sure to properly verify eligibility.
- Sites will receive a lump sum payment for eligible teachers and must distribute the wage enhancement to teachers and provide proof of payment for each window.
- Teachers are only eligible for the wage enhancement if they are documented as having worked at least 30 hours per week, two weeks per month for each of the three months in the employment period.
- Paid maternity leave, paid sick leave, and paid vacation time is counted towards the required 30 hours per week average. Compensation should be documented on the paystubs.
- Educators/Providers will not be penalized for unexpected closures due to the following occurrences:
- Forced closure due to unforeseeable facility issues, i.e. broken air condition, water leaks, etc.
- Forced closure due to inclement weather, i.e. snow storms, hurricanes, flooding, etc.
- Forced closure due to illness in an attempt to limit spread
Where can I find additional information?
Please see the Wage Enhancement Educator FAQ which was drafted in order to help educators understand the program.
If you still have questions, please e-mail: wageenhancement@noeen.org.
2023-2024 Wage Enhancment Impact
For the 2023-2024 academic year, Agenda for Children disbursed wage enhancements to 1,185 educators in Orleans Parish across 116 early learning programs. Teachers had the potential to receive up to $3,000 during the program year and disbursements totaled $2,644,750.
