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The federal government awarded the state of Texas $16 million a year for the Preschool Development Grant Birth Through 5 (PDG B-5). The funds are from January 2023 through December 2025.


Program Purposes

PDG B-5 funding helps states with efforts to address gaps in their early childhood system that were made worse by the COVID-19 crisis.

In Texas, PDG initial grant work included developing a "Texas Early Learning Needs Assessment" and "Early Learning Strategic Plan" in 2019. The needs assessment and strategic plan are on the Texas Early Learning Council's website.


Texas PDG B-5 Grant Contents

The grant builds on the six goals from the Texas Early Learning Strategic Plan.

1. Connect Families to Services and Engage Families as Leaders

  • Add local resources to earlychildhood.texas.gov.
  • Create an eligibility screener to help parents learn more about early childhood programs.
  • Use and expand Parent Advisory Councils across the state.
  • Provide funding for two family engagement staff at the Texas Education Agency.
  • Support staff in using the National Family Support Network Standards of Quality.
  • Develop processes to provide ongoing family feedback to the state.
  • Provide subgrants to Prevention and Early Intervention providers for family engagement activities.

2. Support Local Systems Building

Broaden Help Me Grow Texas to help communities organize early childhood resources by:

  • Offering help to new Help Me Grow affiliate organizations.
  • Connecting local early childhood leaders to work and plan together.
  • Providing subgrants to Prevention and Early Intervention providers.

3. Expand Access to High Quality Programs

  • Improve access to child care in rural areas with Child Care Regulation Navigators.
  • Provide training for child care staff to support young children with disabilities.
  • Support prekindergarten teachers through coaching and assessment tools.
  • Expand infant and early childhood mental health consultation.
  • Conduct studies to help the state make mental health consultations more available. Visit the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health at The University of Texas at Austin Early Childhood Mental Health website to learn more.

4. Strengthen and Build the ECCE Workforce

  • Develop a pipeline of early childhood providers through many pathways.
  • Create a guidance document to help Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs of study get students to a Child Development Associate (CDA).
  • Create a landscape analysis to understand early childhood training programs and degrees.
  • Provide incentives to Early Childhood Intervention therapists to maintain qualified staff.
  • Offer restorative discipline coaching to early childhood providers to address challenging behaviors.

5. Develop a Statewide Integrated Data System

  • Develop an Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS).

6. Reports and Studies


Year 1 Grant Activities

GoalTotal Cost
1. Connect Families to Services and Engage Families as Leaders$242,700
2. Support Local Systems Building$5,510,000
3. Expand Access to High Quality Programs$4,600,000
4. Strengthen and Build the ECCE Workforce$3,562,951
5. Develop a Statewide Integrated Data System$0
6. Reports and Studies$1,665,400
Other - personnel, supplies, travel, other$418,949
Total$16,000,000

Funding Authority

This project was made possible by grant number 90TP0088.  Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.