Summary of Senate Bill 76, relating to the provision of subsidized childcare services

Texas Senate Bill 76 seeks to provide voluntary full-day, full-year care to Texas parents whenever possible.  Please take a moment to complete this online survey of the current services in your area and the potential for future collaboration projects.  Your input is vital to our ability to provide an accurate picture of early care and education services across the state.

Take a moment to fill out our survey of local providers to help us develop collaborative programs across Texas.

Enacted by the 78th Texas Legislature

Senate Bill 76, authored by Senator Judith Zaffirini, represents a significant first step towards the coordination of pre-kindergarten, Head Start and child-care in the state of Texas. In the midst of severe budget shortfalls and difficult cuts to social services, SB 76 is a bipartisan, revenue-neutral solution designed to increase efficiency and simplify access.  The bill creates more flexibility for service providers to innovate with new and existing programs, as well as develop a model for quality of service to guide the success of these efforts. While allowing for room to experiment, it provides a clear path for integrating early education with childcare to ensure that resources are used efficiently to support Texas families.

The bill includes several areas of action to assist providers in coordinating services and to create a foundation for further legislation next session. SB 76 requires that school districts considering the creation of a pre-kindergarten program to examine co-locating with an existing Head Start or childcare program in the area. It empowers the Commissioner of Education to provide for coordinating programs including the waiver of rules to ensure the greatest flexibility available under federal law and the creation of model program standards for early childhood care and education.

Programs will also be required to coordinate with the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) and local workforce development boards regarding subsidized childcare services.  In particular, this coordination will require that childcare providers supply parents with information on the childcare and early education resources in the community including referral agencies, pre-kindergarten programs and Head Start opportunities. The intent of coordination will be to ensure that parents are able to take full advantage of available services and that full-day, full-year childcare and early education is available to low-income parents whenever possible.

Senate Bill 76 also takes concrete action towards the development of standards to evaluate the effectiveness of childcare and early education programs in considering the most efficient use of tax dollars. The bill requires the relevant state and local officials to consider the quality of services as the basis for contract decisions and sets out an inclusive set of criteria to be used at the local level as groundwork for a future statewide model of quality service.  The State Center for Early Childhood Development, in conjunction with stakeholders, is charged with developing a quality rating system demonstration project as a basis for future replication at the state level. Service providers are also encouraged to initiate demonstration projects on the potential for coordinating resources and programs on the local level.

Finally, the Director of the State Center for Early Childhood Development is charged with appointing an advisory committee to evaluate the feasibility of coordinating childcare programs and early education programs. This committee, composed of state and local officials, providers and parents will prepare a report for the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and the Legislature by September 2004 outlining the potentials for childcare coordination and the efficient use of resources.