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In 2019, the 86th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3 (HB3), which:
To be considered for partnerships, child care programs must meet one of five quality criteria, which include being a Texas Rising Star Three- or Four-Star program. The information included on this web page is meant to support the development of those partnerships, including wraparound care (before and after school) for eligible three- and four-year-old children dually enrolled in pre-K and the Child Care Services program.
Source: RECESS Initiative grantee, Commit Partnership with Early Matters Dallas
A child care/pre-K partnership is a collaboration between a public school pre-K program and one or more quality-rated* child care programs (sometimes referred to as “day care”) to provide high-quality care and education to three- and four-year-old children. This is also called an “early learning partnership.”
*Texas Rising Star Three- and Four-star certified programs are eligible for pre-K partnerships. Visit this TEA web page for additional information.
Formal partnerships exist when eligible three- and four-year-old children are dually enrolled in TWC's Child Care Services program with a Texas Rising Star Three- or Four-Star facility and public school pre-K. This allows for eligible students to receive wraparound care to better support the needs of working parents.
The physical classroom is often in a Texas Rising Star Three- or Four-Star child care center, but it can also be on a school campus. The teacher must meet certain requirements, such as having a bachelor’s degree, and can be employed by either the school district or the child care center. Information on other quality requirements is available here (slides 11–22). TWC and TEA will provide a robust support network to help you meet these requirements.
Informal partnerships exist when a school district and one or more child care centers share resources and information with each other. For example, the school district could share school-readiness expectations and professional development training for a shared curriculum, while the child care center invites school district pre-K teachers to trainings on conscious discipline or developmentally appropriate teaching strategies.
For dually enrolled children, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) will pay for the wraparound child care, which are the hours before and after pre-K instruction. For more information, see WD Letter 02-20, issued on January 8, 2020, and titled “Prekindergarten Public-Private Partnerships and Wraparound Child Care.”
TWC also provides technical assistance to Texas Rising Star child care programs and Local Workforce Development Boards to help them develop and sustain partnerships. For more information, please email:
To be eligible for a full-day program, a child must be at least four years of age by September 1 of the current school year and meet at least one of the following criteria. The same criteria apply for three-year-old children to be eligible for half-day programs.
For more information, see https://tea.texas.gov/academics/early-childhood-education .
For families, partnerships can provide the following:
For child care programs, partnerships can provide the following:
For school districts, partnerships can provide the following:
TWC and TEA hosted a Pre-K Partnership Summit in the spring of 2021 for Local Workforce Development Boards to learn about how they can work together in their regions to support and expand pre-k partnerships. Here are the resources shared during the Summit:
For more information, please email: