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Public Sector Solutions, Children & Families, Data Solutions
Key Takeaway
Texas’s child care workforce comes from a wide range of backgrounds, is experienced, and central to children’s early learning. Yet compensation remains low, benefits sparse, and professional development uneven. Programs face a gap between what staff expect and what programs can deliver.
Child care plays an essential role in the U.S. economy but faces enormous structural challenges. Infant care is more expensive than public college tuition in 38 U.S. states, while child care workers struggle with low pay, limited benefits, and a high-stress job.
High-quality and accessible child care is critical to allow parents to stay in the workforce and support healthy development for children, yet millions of families cannot find available child care near where they live, and child care centers struggle to hire teachers.
In Texas, of the 2.3 million children under the age of 5, around 465,000 are served by child care or early learning programs. The child care workforce is an important pillar that supports the state’s economic growth and human development.
There are more than 12,500 licensed child care providers in Texas, including center-based and home-based programs. While there are large clusters of providers in urban areas where demand for services is high, rural families often have limited child care options and farther distances to travel to access care.
We conducted a representative survey of 1,129 Texas child care program directors to understand the experiences of child care workers in the state and what can be done to improve the profession.
The survey collected data on the child care program each surveyed director oversaw, including information on program teachers. The following data visuals present an analysis of those survey results to answer four key questions.
1. What are the characteristics of the child care workforce in Texas?
2. How does compensation vary by worker and program characteristics?
3. What are professional development needs for teachers?
4. What are the primary challenges child care facilities face?
Texas’ child care workforce comes from a wide range of backgrounds, is experienced, and central to children’s early learning. Yet compensation remains low, benefits sparse, and professional development uneven. Programs face a gap between what staff expect and what programs can deliver.
Policymakers can make meaningful workforce improvements by broadening benefits access, simplifying professional development systems, investing in retention strategies, and clarifying career pathways.
Learn more about our study and read the full report: Identifying Strategies to Strengthen the Child Care Workforce in Texas →
Learn more about our data solutions service offerings: Data Solutions →
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