This website will be unavailable from Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.
Amend CSSB 6 as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 42.052, Human Resources Code, is amended
to add the following appropriately numbered sections.
(a) Notwithstanding any other law and subject to this
section, the Department of Family and Protective Services shall
ensure that, to the extent federal child care development funds
dedicated to quality improvement activities are used to improve
quality and availability of child care, those funds are used only
for quality child care programs.
SECTION 2. RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF CERTAIN DEDICATED
CHILD-CARE FUNDS. If the state is required to dedicate more than
four percent of the amount of federal child-care development funds
for the purposes provided by 42 U.S.C. Section 9858e, the
department, unless otherwise required by federal law, shall ensure
that any amount of the dedicated funds in excess of four percent is
used to establish and implement the grant program for quality
improvement activities under the following section.
(a) Subject to the availability of funds under this section
or from another source, the department by rule shall establish a
program under the department awards grants to child-care providers
and local community-based organizations for use in providing
quality improvement activities to improve the quality and
availability of child-care services.
(c) The department by rule shall prescribe eligibility
criteria for receipt of a grant under the program.
(d) In developing the program under this section, the
department shall adopt a list of quality improvement activities for
which a provider or organization is eligible to receive funding
through the program. The list of activities must include:
(1) comprehensive consumer education encompassing:
(A) parent education programs;
(B) publication of quality indicators to evaluate
child-care services;
(C) data collection regarding child-care and
early childhood education programs; and
(D) parent referral services;
(2) professional development activities for providers,
including:
(A) training, educational materials, or
technical assistance;
(B) scholarship information and assistance; and
(C) strategies to increase salaries or other
forms of compensation;
(3) teacher training programs, mentoring programs, or
other programs or activities that promote early development of
language, literacy, and mathematical skills in young children;
(4) programs or activities that promote inclusive
child care;
(5) activities promoted by the Healthy Child Care
America program and other activities designed to promote the social
and emotional development of young children;
(6) use of infant and toddler specialists to educate
parents and provide training and technical assistance to child-care
providers; and
(7) other activities the department determines will
increase parental choice and improve the quality and availability
of subsidized child-care services.
(e) The department shall allocate funds to local
organizations for these purpose, subject to guidelines established
by the department. To the extent allowed by federal law, the
department may allocate federal child-care development funds for
the purposes of the program.
(f) In developing and administering the program, the
department shall ensure that local providers and organizations have
the option to choose which of the quality improvement activities
described by Subsection (d) the provider or organization wants to
provide under the program.
(g) In awarding grants under the program, the department
shall give priority to quality improvement activities for programs
that serve infants and toddlers younger than three years of age.
(h) The department shall submit to the legislature an annual
report regarding the operation of the program during the preceding
year. At a minimum, the report must include the number and total
amount of grants awarded during the period covered by the report.
SECTION 3. As soon as practicable after the effective date of
this Act, the department shall adopt rules necessary for the
implementation of Section.