Texas, like all states, has a unique early childhood policy landscape that is shaped by economics, demographics, political history, coalitions, and other factors that create a state-specific environment for policy advocacy.
State early childhood policy progress is dependent both on the state’s environment and the numerous efforts—by the organizations listed on this page, other organizations, parents, policymakers, practitioners, and more—who work both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.
Research shows that family economic security is foundational to children’s overall wellbeing. Research also shows that widespread disparities in opportunity (especially by race) drive wide disparities in outcomes. States with policies that offer strong support to young children and their families are more likely to see 1) declining numbers of children in low-income households and 2) low racial disparity among those children.
Young Children in Low-Income Households: Declining
Approximately 44 percent (1,537,000) of the state’s children 0-8 live in households below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (2022). This number represents a decrease from 47 percent (1,681,000) in 2017.1
Racial Disparity Among Young Children Living in Low-Income Households: Moderate
Black, Hispanic/Latino, and/or Native children aged 0-8 are significantly more likely to be living in households below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level than are Asian and non-Hispanic White children.2
State General Fund Appropriations: Growing
In June of 2025, Texas’ governor signed the state’s fiscal 2026-2027 biennial budget. The budget provides $338 billion in all funds over the biennium, an increase of 1.2 percent, or $4 billion, from the 2024-2025 biennium. The budget allocates $149 billion in general revenue funds over the biennium, an increase of 5.1 percent, or $7.2 billion, over the 2024-2025 biennium. General revenue-dedicated funds decreased 17.7 percent to $8.1 billion.3
Largest Per Capita Revenue Sources (after federal transfers):4
Texas does not levy an individual income tax or corporate income tax but does have a gross receipts tax. (Census counts this revenue as either general sales tax revenue or selective sales tax revenue.)
State Budget Rules:4
Texas uses a biennial budget. The legislature must pass a balanced budget, and is prohibited from carrying a deficit over into the following year. The Texas Constitution further limits spending growth with a budget rule based on personal income growth. However, the limit may be overridden with a simple legislative majority. Texas also limits total authorized debt and debt service incurred by the state.
There is no permanent state funding stream—such as lottery revenue, nicotine tax, or trust fund distributions—dedicated by statute to early childhood supports.9 (Examples of other states with such funding in place can be found in the Alliance’s Revenue and Early Childhood Finance resource center.)
Political Alignment: Aligned Republican
During the legislative session, the state’s Senate and House were both Republican controlled. The state’s Governor was also a Republican.6
Types of Common Ballot Measures Available:7 One
Early Childhood Policy Advocacy Organizations Include:
Early Childhood Policy Advocacy Multi-State Initiatives Include:8
Highlights from the state’s early childhood policy advocacy community include:9
Advocates successfully secured $100 million in first-of-its-kind state funding for child care scholarships, giving thousands of additional Texas families an opportunity to go to work and secure high-quality child care for their children. The state manages a highly effective program to provide child care scholarships to parents with low incomes, but approximately 95,000 families are on a waiting list for a scholarship. This is the first time the Legislature has provided state funding to complement the federal funding that goes towards these scholarships. This victory for parents and children was the result of a multi-year advocacy campaign.
Legislators invested $139 million in general revenue ($386 million in all funds) in strategies to improve the Medicaid and SNAP eligibility system, including overhauling outdated technology so the system functions properly for families and hiring additional staff. For years, the state has used a clunky, inefficient, outdated system to process applications and renewals for SNAP and Medicaid health insurance, creating a backlog of more than 200,000 unprocessed Medicaid applications for most of 2024 and leaving parents waiting an average of 41 days for a Medicaid eligibility determination—with some waiting over 160 days.
The Texas Legislature approved an additional $18 million for the biennium for the Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) program. ECI plays a vital role in supporting infants and toddlers with Down syndrome, autism, speech delays, and other disabilities or developmental delays. Advocates worked closely with ECI providers across the state to respond to a Request for Information (RFI) from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), helping to clearly communicate the need for additional funding. These provider insights were critical in informing HHSC’s funding request to the Legislature. The new funding will cover anticipated enrollment growth in the program over the next two years. Without it, ECI providers would have faced a funding cut, leading them to serve more children without a corresponding increase in resources. This investment helps ensure that ECI providers can continue meeting the needs of families with babies and toddlers with disabilities across Texas.
The Legislature passed SB 462, which will help recruit and retain more child care workers. Currently, the lack of available, qualified staff is reducing the overall supply of child care. When a child care program is understaffed, the program must serve fewer children, which means more parents are scrambling to find the care they need to go to work. A key barrier for child care educators is securing child care for their own children. SB 462 addresses this challenge by adding income-eligible child care workers to the priority list for child care scholarships.
SB 599 restricts local governments and municipalities from imposing additional health and safety standards on family child care home providers. Local governments cannot create an ordinance, order, or other measure that further regulates the health and safety of a day-care or family home licensed under the Human Resources Code. Child care homes and family homes now must only meet the facility and capacity standards set by the state.
HB 2294 allows local workforce development boards to pay Texas Rising Star (TRS) Program childcare providers the maximum rate for their quality rating, even if the provider’s listed rates are lower, as long as it does not lower the Texas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) goal for the average number of children served each day through subsidized child care in that area. This helps maintain childcare access for disadvantaged families by addressing the problem of high-quality providers in low-income areas who, limited by lower market rates, receive smaller reimbursements and risk shutting down.
HB 2 introduces significant reforms to Texas school funding. It adopts recommendations from the Texas Commission on Special Education Funding to better align funding with the intensity of services provided and waives certification fees to help address teacher shortages. The bill also expands pre-k eligibility to children of public school teachers and increases the Early Education Allotment (EEA) by $90 million. While a portion of the EEA allocation is now directed based on pre-k attendance, HB 2 does not resolve the state’s partial funding of full-day pre-k. Additionally, the bill works to address some of the administrative roadblocks to form pre-k partnerships. The following changes will require careful observation to assess their impact on access and funding for early childhood education: new restrictions on tuition-based pre-k and pre-k classroom expansion, requiring verification from designated intermediary organizations starting in the 2027-2028 school year.
SB 991 defines a chronically absent student as a student who is absent from school for more than 10 percent of the academic year or a 30 day enrollment period. By adding chronic absenteeism to the “at risk” category, the state will be better able to support students who are chronically absent and therefore at risk of dropping out. Texas needed better data about chronic absenteeism in public schools and public charter schools. With better data, educators can better address the causes of chronic absenteeism. The bill also requires schools to report the number of chronically absent students and make that data publicly available. This is a significant step towards identifying at-risk students who are in need of additional support.
In 2025, Texas advocates also went on defense when the first draft of the state budget significantly underfunded key maternal health programs. Ultimately, advocates were able to work with policymakers to ensure the final budget maintained funding for women’s preventive safety-net programs—Healthy Texas Women, Family Planning Program, and Breast and Cervical Cancer Services—with total funding at $460 million over the biennium. Restoring these key funding streams preserved access to preventive and reproductive health care for low-income Texans.
The Alliance for Early Success has two principal grantees in Texas. Children at Risk serves as a catalyst for change to improve the quality of life for children. Through its research and advocacy programs, they are a leader in understanding the health, safety and economic indicators impacting children, and educating public policy makers about their importance in improving the lives of children. Texans Care for Children is a statewide, nonpartisan, multi-issue children’s policy organization. They develop policy solutions, produce research, and engage community leaders to educate policymakers, the media, and the public about what works to improve the well-being of Texas children and families.
Children at Risk and Texans Care for Children are working to advance early childhood policies in several areas that align with the Alliance’s birth-through-eight policy framework:
Child Care
Child Care Workforce
Preschool and Pre-K
K-3rd Grade
Maternal Health
Infant & Child Health
Early Intervention (Age 0-3)
Child Welfare
Financing
Click here and here for more information on advocates’ policy agenda.
Several states including Maryland, Arkansas, and Indiana have opted to reduce funding for early learning programs, while others, such as New York, Texas, and Illinois, managed to strengthen their programs despite fiscal headwinds.
NOTES:
1 Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, January, 2024.
2 National Center for Children in Poverty, Children Ages 0 through 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, October 2024, NCCP analysis of ACS 5-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2018-2022.
3 National Association of State Budget Officers, Proposed and Enacted Budgets, FY 2026.
4 Urban Institute, State Fiscal Briefs, April 2025.
5 Alliance for Early Success, State Examples of Dedicated Funding Streams, 2025
6 National Conference of State Legislatures, 2025 State & Legislative Partisan Composition, January 31, 2025.
7 Ballotpedia, Ballot Measures by State, Kids Count Data Center, 2025.
8 Alliance for Early Success, Multi-State Initiatives for Early Childhood Policy Advocacy, July, 2024.
9 Alliance for Early Success, State-Wide Advocacy Highlights Survey, April-October, 2025.
