New Texas school readiness data shows child care, pre-K gaps. What are proposed solutions?

New data outlining gaps in critical areas of school readiness for Texas’ young children, and policy recommendations to mend them, were released by Texans Care for Children on Wednesday. And there’s work to be done, according to early childhood advocates.

Enriching early learning experiences are one of four categories highlighted through the Texas School Readiness Dashboard alongside sufficient household resources, positive family-child interactions and good health and development. The dashboard designed to inform policymakers, parents and community members gives insights specific to Texas’ early learning spaces, including Early Head Start, Head Start, private child care and public pre-K enrollment. Research and experts say children who enroll in these various types of programs are more likely to succeed in kindergarten and to have a stronger foundation to build upon for the rest of their educational careers.

“The data clearly show that Texas leaders have more work to do to support children during the critical period of brain development from birth to age 5 so they are ready to shine when they start school,” said Chelsea Cornelius, director of research and evaluation at Texans Care for Children. “Texas policymakers will need to address children’s health insurance, access to high-quality child care, and other early childhood policy priorities to ensure that children are prepared for school. We’re also pleased to see that the Legislature made progress last year on some of our previous recommendations, such as extending postpartum health coverage.”

Although public pre-K and child care accounts for the largest share of young Texas children, enrollment and access to both spaces is limited due to factors such as eligibility requirements in public pre-K and high tuition costs at private child care facilities.

“(Public pre-K) is primarily available to children from households with low incomes and children designated as emergent bilingual. Yet approximately 57,000 eligible 4-year-olds and about 225,000 eligible 3-year-olds are not enrolled in public pre-K, according to the Texas Education Agency,” the dashboard states.

This is despite Texas serving more than 240,000 3- and 4-year-old students — the highest number of pre-K students nationwide. Emergent bilingual students represent 21% of the overall population in Texas public schools and include those whose primary language is not English but are in the process of learning it.

The enrollment gap can be attributed to a few factors.

“Some families simply may not be aware of the option. Other families may choose to keep their children at home, or enroll their children in a child care program or Head Start, because the limited hours of public pre-K (six hours per day) are incompatible with their work schedules, they prefer the model or location offered by a different program, or for other reasons,” according to the dashboard.

The data also touches on Early Head Start and Head Start access, which only reaches 6% and 22% of income-eligible children, respectively. The federally-funded programs provide child development and parent support services for families with children up to age 5 who are at or below 100% of the federal poverty level. Texas ranks 49th in the U.S. for Early Head Start access and 44th for Head Start.

“The effects are particularly strong amongst certain subgroups of children, particularly Hispanic and African-American children, dual language learners, children who are homeless or in foster care, those who qualify for free lunch, and those whose mothers didn’t graduate high school. When disadvantaged children receive high-quality birth-to-five education, such as Early Head Start plus Head Start, the return on investment can be as high as 13% annually,” according to the National Head Start Association.

In terms of private child care, “finding affordable, high-quality child care has been a longstanding challenge for Texas families, a situation that only worsened during the pandemic.”

Child care deserts, or areas with limited access to programs that accept subsidies, are prevalent with 83% of low-income Texas families with children under age 6 living in them, according to a Children at Risk analysis. These families have an income below 200% of the federal poverty level, or an annual income of $60,000 for a family of four. Communities are considered child care deserts if the number of children is at least three times greater than the number of slots available through licensed providers that accept child care subsidies.

The quality aspect of a child care program can be enhanced through the state’s Texas Rising Star program, which offers higher ratings and reimbursements to participating facilities that meet certain standards, such as smaller class sizes and teacher training, that focus on safety, quality and education. More than 9 in 10 children statewide from low-income families live in a quality desert that has limited access to providers both participating in Texas Rising Star and accepting subsidies.

Bethany Edwards, executive director of the Early Learning Alliance, stressed the importance of taking all categories into account when reviewing the dashboard and analyzing the variety of children’s needs that connect to their education.

“There are a lot of these different areas that impact children’s school readiness other than just being in an early learning environment or a child care setting,” she said. “The other aspects around nutrition and family health and maternal health… are equally as important, and quite frankly essential, for the child to be ready.”

Kara Waddell, CEO and president of Child Care Associates, said the dashboard shows how evident it is that improvement is needed to ensure all Texas children have access to enriching early learning experiences, regardless of their background.

“We were proud to see leaders from communities across Texas recently come together at the Momentum Early Learning Summit to align behind two critical aspects of the early learning system —supporting a strong “mixed-delivery” prekindergarten system and bolstering the early educator workforce — both of which were also highlighted as recommendations from the School Readiness Dashboard. We are hopeful that state policymakers will start to lean into what local communities are telling them, as well as what the data are telling them, about the critical need to improve our state’s early learning system,” Waddell said.

The conference was hosted in Fort Worth earlier this month and included a panel discussion with Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Bryan Daniel, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath.

On the Texas School Readiness Dashboard, early childhood experts acknowledged Texas’ recent progress in policymaking within the early learning sphere, such as approving a bill that set the stage for the passage of Proposition 2 — allowing local governments to give property tax exemptions to qualifying child care facilities. It was approved by almost 65% of Texas voters in November.

However, improvement is needed by strengthening classroom quality, improving teacher-child interactions, improving access to high-quality programs for infants and toddlers and bolstering the early childhood workforce, according to the dashboard. Some of the specific policy recommendations in each of these areas includes improving teacher-child ratios in child care and public pre-K, improving reimbursement rates for child care providers that accept subsidies and increasing compensation of child care educators to match those of teachers working in public schools with similar qualifications.

“There is no doubt that the Legislature has more work to do on child care, health care, nutrition, and the other policy areas that are critical to children’s lives, inside and outside the classroom,” said Rep. Diego Bernal, chair of the Texas House Early Childhood Caucus. “Children’s experiences during the first few years of life are the foundation for their futures. The Dashboard confirms that we need a stronger commitment from state leaders to support children during those early years and beyond.”