Goal 5: Child Care
We support workers and employers by increasing access to affordable high-quality childcare, promoting early learning, and fostering long-term self-sufficiency for families
OBJECTIVES
5.1 Access: Support expansion of childcare facilities into childcare deserts. Increase provider capacity through supply of additional slots.
5.2 Whole Family: Provide financial support through scholarships to local families. Leverage workforce services for individuals requesting and receiving childcare services.
5.3 Quality: Assist childcare providers to achieve higher Texas Rising Star ratings
5.4 Professional Recognition: Support advances in education and training for childcare educators. Support advances in building pipeline of early childhood educators
5.5 Promote Partnerships; Leverage public and private resources to support the childcare ecosystem of providers and families
5.6 Data Collection: Assess data collection capacity. Work in community to improve data collection and analysis capabilities. Create special report on childcare access for children ages infant to age 3. Create a dashboard annually to share the state of childcare in Travis County from WFS’ perspective.
5.7 Policy Tracking: Report to Childcare Advisory Council and Board of Directors (as appropriate) local, state and federal childcare policies that impact localized childcare system and services
Give your input: Enter comments below (please also note the organization you represent).
The biggest need is jobs for single parents with elementary school students who need to work daytime shifts so that they can be home when their children come home from school or after school care.
I am with St. Vincent de Paul Society and help many people in the community pay their monthly bills when their income falls short.
Continue to increase the number of scholarship slots in our area. Many of the parents we serve through the 2-Gen Coalition for Economic Advancement cannot rely on WFS child care scholarships because they are on the waitlist too long or do not know they have been dropped from the waitlist. Expanding scholarship slots is essential for enabling parents to quickly take advantage of training or work opportunities and ensuring children have access to quality education.
Two items are crucial. First and foremost, adding funds to alleviate the waitlist backlog, which is several years long. Second, improving the communication with families. This may be a systems/platforms issue, but the process for transparently sharing updates and events with families who are receiving subsidies, on the waitlist or considering the waitlist absolutely needs to be optimized. Too many families (and therefore child care providers) are uninformed and therefore highly impacted by changes or expectations around funding status.