Partner Organizations

TECEC is proud to partner with organizations that are making a difference in the lives of young children and  families across the state. This month we are featuring the following partners: Texas Association of Business and Texas PTA . Use information about local and statewide organizations on this site as a resource for making more connections in your local community, and for identifying areas for partnering in advocacy efforts at the state level.

The Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition is pleased to partner with the Texas Association of Business (TAB) in order to ensure that our youngest Texans are entering kindergarten school ready. TAB was founded more than 85 years ago with the goal of improving the business climate in Texxas and strengthening the state's economy. TAB is a bipartisan organization committed to supporting education policies that strengthen Texas' ability to be competitive in the global economy.

In 2010 TECEC joined forces with TAB, Raise Your Hand Texas, Texas Association of School Administrators, Texas Association of School Boards, Texas Institute for Education Reform, and the National Child Care Coalition to form The Coalition for Pre-K Quality and Accountability.

This broad-based Coalition is working toward reforms and investments in ealry childhood education that will promote the development of a strong Texas workforce in the future. TAB President and CEO Bill Hammond argues that "quality early childhood education is essential to the long-term prosperity of Texas." (Source: http://www.txbiz.org/press_releases/69 )

The Coalition for Pre-K Quality and Accountability has identified the following policy priorities:

• Full funding of the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) Pre-Kindergarten Early Start Grant Program at $104.3 million per year;
• Full funding of TEA's Early Childhood School Readiness Program at $7.5 million per year to fully leverage federal child care matching funds;
• Full funding of the Texas Workforce Commission's $11.7 million in federal child care funds to implement Texas School Ready! Projects across Texas;
• Support for the Texas Early Learning Council's (formerly the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care) strategies to increase the number of children entering kindergarten ready to learn;
• Voluntary, private pay option for early childhood education providers to participate in the school readiness certification sysytem in order to meet growing demand for the program;
• Local workforce development boards should be required to list quality indicators of subsidized child care providers, including Texas School Ready! Certified programs in materials shared with parents;
• Participation in Texas School Ready! projects and the school readiness certification systeym should remain criteria for an enhanced Texas Workforce Commission reimbursement rate for providers serving children in the subsidized child care system; and
• For the purposes of determining local workforce development board enrollment performance targets, each subsidized child enrolled in quality enhancing programs should be counted as 1.1 performance unit (to receive the weighted performance measure, children must be enrolled in a program that is Texas School Ready! certified, seeking certification, designated as 3 or 4 stars in Texas Rising Star or national accreditation. (Source: Texas Association of Business, 11/3/10 from http://www.txbiz.org/press_releases/69 )

Additional information about TAB is available online at www.txbiz.org .

Texas PTA is a statewide membership organization dedicated to supporting every child to reach their potential.

The mission of Texas PTA is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.

Texas PTA works torward that mission by sponsoring programs that support families in all areas of their lives, from parental involvement to healthy living to environmental awareness. Texas PTA seeks to engage parents in early childhood eduation by connecting families with service providers and by creating collaborative parent groups to work together to promote high quality early childhood education experiences for children in the community.  Click here to access the Early Childhood Brochure to learn more about partnership opportunities in your community.

Texas PTA early childhood program leaders have generously shared the following success stories from two Texas communities:

Greater Lewisville Early Childhood PTA (GLECPTA),  Lewisvile, TX:  GLECPTA members greatly enjoy the deeply discounted PTA group rates at educational outings year round.  Specifically, our fundraising efforts of holding one silent auction each year assists us to greatly subsidize outings to popular activities like Dallas World Aquarium, Dallas Zoo, Fort Worth Museum of Science & History, and Casa Manana children's theater for their annual holiday production.  We're also able to subsidize other big favorites - a Winter party, featuring Santa Claus, and a Spring party, featuring the Easter Bunny and Ice Cream Man.

GLECPTA has many strong playgroups, grouped by school year ages.  Our "Parents as Teachers" (PATs), where the parents in that playgroup rotate teaching different age-appropriate lessons for our little ones, is extremely successful.  All the playgroups help to connect our members on a more personal level as we journey through these early childhood years together!

Lastly, many members say one of their favorite things about GLECPTA is our monthly member meeting.  Beginning this year, our Hospitality Chair now organizes a brunch each month where members bring different breakfast items to enjoy.  Members say they especially like the new format of round tables at our meetings, allowing them to socialize while they eat.  After our social time, we listen to an informative speaker who shares helpful tools on all different aspects of the early years.

Additional information about Texas PTA is available online at www.txpta.org .

For more information about TECEC's partner organizations, please contact Emily at epyeatt@tecec.org or 512-476-7939.