Overview of State Legislative Efforts within
Early Childhood Education System

Prepared by Collaborative for Children and Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition
May 2009

Introduction

In the 1970-80s, parents of young children entered the workforce in significant numbers thus raising community awareness of the need to pay closer attention to the regulations that governed the child care industry. Child care programs (with some exceptions) are required to be licensed by the State of Texas. For years, the regulations have focused on health and safety considerations with limited attention given to the opportunity for such programs to contribute to the early education of children. Given the low education and training requirements of employees in child care centers (high school education or GED and 8 hours of pre-service training), there appears to be an assumption that if an infant, toddler or preschool age child is in a safe and healthy environment during the workday, the state has done their job to protect them.

However, since the child care system is funded primarily through a tuition-based system, paying for more highly educated and trained teachers comes at a cost that parents of young children or the child care centers themselves are not able to afford on their own. Thus, even though research provides compelling evidence that young children would greatly benefit from child care teachers that have a better understanding of child development and how young children learn, the "system" cannot afford to make these improvements. Improving state standards without financial resources to implement these changes is considered, understandably, by the child care industry to be an "unfunded mandate" which makes broad-based support for legislation or regulatory changes very difficult.

In recent years, more attention has been paid to increasing the pre-service and annual training requirements of child care teachers and directors given the growing body of research that demonstrates the critical importance a child's early environment to their later academic and social development. National accrediting bodies for child care have provided guidelines and a process for improving quality but few programs have had the resources to achieve accreditation without significant external assistance. Further, the improvements required to become accredited significantly increase ongoing operating costs and there are few options to pay for such improvements other than through parent tuition. As a result, accredited centers frequently are located in wealthier neighborhoods where families are more likely to be able to afford the higher cost of quality care.

States have had limited resources to improve the quality of child care through the federal Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). This grant is primarily to assist low income families with the cost of child care but the federal government requests that a small percentage of the grant be used to support quality improvement services for the centers that serve low income families. However, in Texas, as the demand for assistance with the cost of child care has increased, fewer resources have been available for quality improvement services. A small number of organizations, such as the Collaborative for Children, have continued to receive some public support and in addition raise private dollars to support quality improvement efforts but the need significantly outstrips the resources available.

There is one state supported early education program that is paid for with public dollars, the State Pre-kindergarten system. In 1984, legislation was passed in Texas that established eligibility criteria for half-day, public school pre-kindergarten for three and four year-old children. At that time, Texas was one of only a few states that provided public dollars for pre-kindergarten. Bachelor-degreed teachers with an early childhood certification were hired to implement the program. Texas Pre-kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines were developed in 1999 (updated in 2008) but utilization/implementation by school districts was and still is voluntary. In addition, no teacher-to-child ratios were established for Pre-kindergarten (as in Kindergarten - 4th grade with ratios of one teacher to every 22 children). National early education accrediting bodies recommend ratios of one teacher for every ten children in preschool-age classrooms in order to maximize effectiveness of the learning environment. Forty states now have public pre-kindergarten programs, 80% of which have teacher to child ratios of ten children per teacher or lower. 73% of state programs have bachelor-degreed teachers as the instruction leaders in the classroom.

The Texas public school pre-kindergarten program currently serves 183,000 children and is the largest program in the nation. In the current 2009 Legislative Session, the Texas Legislature is taking a small step toward improving the ratios and class sizes through House Bill 130. While the funding being proposed will not come close to improving the program standards for all eligible Texas children enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, it will be an incremental step in the right direction toward putting in place program requirements that are developmentally appropriate for young children and that are represented in most pre-kindergarten programs in the country. National and state efforts to bring together the three center-based systems of early education (licensed child care, Head Start and public pre-kindergarten) to develop common standards of quality and streamline operations are underway with potentially promising results. Both scientific and economic data continues to pour in on the importance and cost effectiveness of quality early education given the importance of human capital development to successful community and economic development.

Chronology of Recent Early Education Accomplishments

1999: The state legislature appropriated $100 million per year to make competitive grants available to school districts and charter schools who wish to expand the half-day pre-kindergarten program to a full school day. Priority is given to districts with low third grade test scores.

2002: Greater Houston Collaborative for Children (now Collaborative for Children) partnered with Center for Houston's Future to develop Preschool for ALL, with a goal to make early education accessible and affordable to three and four-year old children in the greater Houston area. Short and long term recommendations and legislative strategies to accomplish its goals were also developed. (To review report and recommendations, click http://www.preschoolforall.org/pdfs/Preschool_Brochure.pdf).

2003: SB 76 (Authored by Senator Judith Zaffirini, Laredo, in the 78th Legislative Session) was signed by Governor Perry which included two areas of focus: (1) the integration of early childhood programs (licensed child care, Head Start and public pre-kindergarten); and (2) the development of a quality rating system to assist parents in selecting a program for their child. The Governor also established the State Center for Early Childhood Development out of which came the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM), a pilot initiative that integrates pre-kindergarten, Head Start and child care programs in Texas as well as implements a professional development model to improve teacher skills in the classroom.

2004: Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition (TECEC), a coalition of over 200 early education organizations, in partnership with the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, achieved statewide involvement in development of "The Texas Plan," a ten-year public policy agenda to enhance early childhood education and development in the state.

2005: The Texas Legislature passed SB 23 to expand the TEEM model to multiple communities in the state.

2006: Texas Communications, LLP conducted a survey of over 1,000 voters and finds that 68% of Texans believe that the state government has the responsibility to provide high-quality pre-kindergarten programs and 72% of voters believe that these programs should be fully funded for all young children regardless of income.

"A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Universally-Accessible Pre-Kindergarten Education in Texas," a study released by Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service, reported that for every one dollar invested in high quality pre-kindergarten, the state will yield at least $3.50 in return.

Amendments to House Bill 1 expanded pre-kindergarten eligibility to include all three and four-year old children with parents in the military.

One Voice, a Houston-based Health and Human Services coalition, created an Early Education working group that worked in partnership with TECEC to develop a common legislative agenda for 2007.

2007: The Texas Legislature passed SB 113 which expanded eligibility to attend prekindergarten for children who have been in the foster care system.

SB 50, a bill that sought funding to accomplish several things (improve the quality of early childhood education teacher training, expand hours of pre-service training and certification requirements for child care workers, enhance reimbursement rates to high-quality providers) stalled in the House. However, funding was still secured for all three priorities to include: $15 million for pre-kindergarten services through the TEEM program, $18 million towards reimbursement rates for child care providers serving low income children and $2 million to support early education professionals in the field.

2009: The 81st Legislature ended May 31, 2009, and early childhood advocates gained support among legislators for many policy priorities. Although HB 130 was vetoed by the Governor, it passed both houses of the Legislature with significant bipartisan support.  The Legislature did appropriate $25 million in new funding for the state’s Early Start program, supported by the Governor, which will increase the number of children served in public pre-K. Legislators also appropriated funding to maintain the state’s integrated school readiness model and other quality improvement initiatives for early education through the State Center for Early Childhood Development at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

A bill to increase reimbursement rates paid to child-care programs that serve children whose parents cannot afford quality care failed to pass, but there is interest in studying the issue during the interim between sessions.

New legislation will require the state to notify parents of eligible children about the availability of pre-kindergarten programs.