Enrolled Bill Summary

House Bill 2609 amends the Labor Code to provide for professional child-care training scholarships, bonuses, and wage supplementation. The act requires the Texas Workforce Commission to develop and administer a program to award $1,000 scholarships for professional child-care training to eligible recipients. The commission is required to fund the awards with federal Child Care Development funds, or other available funding sources, not to exceed $2 million per state biennium. The act authorizes a scholarship recipient to use the award only to pay expenses associated with obtaining certain child-care credentials and establishes eligibility criteria. The act prohibits a person from receiving more than one scholarship and authorizes the commission to provide a bonus or wage supplement, to be paid in equal shares by the commission and the employer, to a recipient who works at the same child-care facility for 18 months after receiving the scholarship. The act requires the commission to adopt rules to implement the program and specifies certain provisions that must be included.