How to Become a Daycare Partner to School Districts in Texas during COVID-19
The landscape of the child care industry has drastically changed within the last few months. However, changes in the early childhood education industry have been taking place for a large number of years. These changes have been very slowly integrated into the early childhood arena. In 2019, the 86th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3 or HB3. HB3 is a partnership between local school districts and child care centers that are able to assist these schools with the influx of children who are now eligible for all day Pre-Kindergarten. Now that we are in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, child care centers will want to take full advantage of this Bill now that social distancing has caused a great need for additional space in classrooms.
HB3:
- requires school districts to provide full-day prekindergarten (pre-K) to eligible four-year-old children
- requires that school districts solicit proposals to develop partnerships with community-based child care providers in order to request a temporary exemption
- and, allows school districts to request a temporary extension if the school district does not have capacity to provide full-day programs
Benefits to providers:
For child care providers, partnerships can provide the following:
- Potentially higher enrollment and greater financial stability by continuing to fill classrooms for three- and four-year-old children, while also receiving support and/or funding from the local school district
- An opportunity to share knowledge with and learn from teachers who have received a different type of training and education
- A pathway to help transition parents and their children to public school for kindergarten
- Greater information and support for children to meet the school-readiness expectations of the local school district
- Increased resources and professional development opportunities (twc.texas.gov/programs/twc-prekindergarten)
To be considered for partnerships, child care providers must meet one of five quality criteria, which include being a Texas Rising Star 3- or 4-star provider.
Interested in registering your preschool? Complete the Texas Workforce Commission survey HERE: