The 82nd Legislative Session Policy Work Group

Background

History: The 82^nd Legislative Session Policy Work Group was created in February of 2010. This group of diverse stakeholders was charged with creating a set of public policy recommendations for the 82^nd Legislative Session that would support high quality child care, Head Start and public pre-k programs for young children across Texas.

Purpose: The purpose of the 82^nd Legislative Session Policy Work Group was to review the progress of The Texas Plan, vet policy options for the 82^nd Legislative Session, and build consensus on the TECEC Legislative Agenda for 2011.

Members: Members of the 82^nd Legislative Session Policy Work Group represent the following organizations:

Advocacy Members (These entities participated in the formation of the TECEC Legislative Agenda):

Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE)

Child Care Associates

Collaborative for Children

Early Care and Education Consortium

National Child Care Coalition

OZ Systems

Pre-k Now

Raise Your Hand Texas

Spring Branch ISD

Stepping Stone Schools

Texas Association for the Education of Young Children (TAEYC)

Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA)

Texas Association of School Boards (TASB)

Texas Association of Business (TAB)

Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA)

Texas Head Start Association

Texas Institute for Education Reform (TIER)

Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA)

United Ways of Texas

Resource Members (These entities served as resource experts throughout the year and did not participate in the formation of the TECEC Legislative Agenda):

Department of Family and Protective Services

Office of Governor Rick Perry

Office of Representative Diane Patrick

Office of Representative Patrick Rose

Office of Senator Zaffirini

Texas Education Agency

Texas Workforce Commission

Activities: The 82^nd Legislative Session Policy Work Group met five times in 2010. In two of these meetings, Resource Members with different areas of expertise participated to inform the group’s thinking and answer questions from the Advocacy Members. In the remaining three meetings, Advocacy Members met to craft policy priorities for the 2011 Legislative Session. The final recommendations were sent to the TECEC Board of Directors in October of 2010 for final review and approval.

Resources

TECEC’s 2011 Legislative Agenda - The dedicated efforts of the 82^nd Legislative Session Policy Work Group resulted in the creation of TECEC’s 2011 Legislative Agenda . The major components of the agenda are to protect all proven high quality investments in early education programs and reform the Texas child care subsidy system.

10 Steps to Reforming the Child Care Subsidy System - The TECEC Child Care Subsidies Work Group met over the course of 2009 and 2010 to track agreement and challenges around issues related to the child care subsidy system. The Work Group produced viable policy recommendations to improve the subsidy system. These recommendations are included in TECEC’s 2011 Legislative Agenda and have been submitted to Representative Mark Strama, Chair of the House Committee on Technology, Economic Development and Workforce.

For more information about the 82^nd Legislative Session Policy Work Group, please contact Kara Johnson at kjohnson@tecec.org or 512-476-7939.