North Texas lawmakers want to expand Tarrant child care grant program to 15 counties
North Texas lawmakers have introduced child care legislation that would expand an existing Tarrant County program, which provides higher wages to child care workers and lower tuition costs to families through grants.
The Child Care Innovation Pilot program, or CCIP, has been proposed through House and Senate bills that, upon becoming law, would expand access to affordable child care and uplift the sector’s workforce by offering competitive grants to providers across the region. The program would build upon Tarrant County’s Prime Early Learning Pilot, which has awarded grants to 19 child care centers and homes that serve low-income families. If expanded, it would benefit about 52 child care programs and up to 2,200 children annually, according to Child Care Associates — one of the largest child development nonprofits in North Texas.
In addition to improving retention of early educators and stabilizing tuition costs, the expanded program would focus on serving infants and toddlers and children with special needs, expanding care in high-need communities and providing care during non-traditional business hours.
The Tarrant County pilot has been overseen by Fort Worth-based Child Care Associates since 2022. The nonprofit partnered with Rice University’s Texas Policy Lab to create the pilot with a goal to expand availability of high-quality care in underserved communities. This pilot was funded through one-time American Rescue Plan funding through Tarrant County.
“We spent considerable time consulting with researchers, economists, and child care operators to find the best way to align services with the needs of working parents,” Kara Waddell, president and CEO of Child Care Associates, said in a statement on Thursday, April 3.
“Through this process, we discovered that supporting the entire child care ecosystem — not just individual seats — was key to scaling child care supply. That’s why we created a grant model that directs funding to where programs need it most: offsetting fixed operational costs, supporting staff wages and providing incentives for key services and high enrollment,” she said.
The proposed expansion would give child care providers in 15 counties, including Tarrant, the opportunity to garner the funding. Local workforce development boards serving Tarrant and North Central Texas — which operate under the Texas Workforce Commission — would disperse these grants.
Rep. Ben Bumgarner and Sen. Kelly Hancock, Republicans from Flower Mound and North Richland Hills, each filed the companion bills on March 14. Bumgarner and Hancock did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Rep. Claudia Ordaz and Sen. César J. Blanco, Democrats from El Paso, also filed bills last month in the House and Senate that expand the initiative further, allowing the Texas Workforce Commission to choose a maximum of six local workforce development board regions to oversee local pilots for four years.
The Tarrant County pilot has seen a 14% increase in overall program enrollment, 17% increase in child care worker retention rates and a 33% decrease in tuition costs for families paying private rates, according to Child Care Associates.
Ready Set Jump Learning Center in Fort Worth was among those who received grants through the Tarrant County pilot. Owner Felicia Davis used the funding to expand infant care and raise staff wages without passing along the cost to enrolled families.
“The grant helped me retain quality teachers by offering competitive wages, so they can support their families while doing the work they love,” Davis said in a statement. “Before (the Tarrant County pilot), I was losing staff to higher-paying jobs. Now, I have stability for my team — and for the children in our care — and am able to staff more classrooms.”
Inaccessible and expensive child care costs Texas about $11.4 billion annually in lost productivity, Texas Restaurant Association President and CEO Emily Williams Knight said in a statement.
“Addressing this challenge isn’t just about supporting families — it’s about strengthening our workforce and ensuring businesses have the talent they need to thrive. By investing in innovative solutions, we can create sustainable child care options that empower working parents, drive economic growth and secure a more prosperous future for Texas,” she said.
