Labor force data shows the child care workforce has not returned to its pre-COVID size, while survey data suggests very high levels of teacher burnout and exits. However, lack of systematic and longitudinal data about early educators makes it difficult to know just how wages and measures of teachers’ wellbeing changed during COVID relative to already challenging pre-pandemic conditions. This brief addresses this gap. Using unique longitudinal data from Virginia, we describe pre-COVID levels of compensation, financial insecurity, and psychological wellbeing among child care teachers, and track how they changed over a three-year period (2019- 2022). (author abstract)