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Texas child care providers are being squeezed from several directions at once: districts taking three- and four-year-olds, new subsidy attendance rules, quality rating requirements and rising costs. In this session, Tym Smith, Board President of the Association for Early Learning Leaders (AELL) and founder of Tym the Trainer, joined Anna Leichter of illumine to break down what is changing for Texas providers and what to do about it. As Tym said at the start, much of this could change quickly after the November 2026 election, so the focus was on how to prepare for whatever comes next. This is the written recap. The full recording is at the top of this page.
Speakers
Tym Smith, Board President, Association for Early Learning Leaders, and Founder, Tym the Trainer; host Anna Leichter, illumine
Best for
Texas child care owners and directors, especially programs that accept subsidies
Session length
60 minutes
In this recap
District pre-K partnerships, Texas Rising Star and national accreditation, the twice-daily attendance scan, keeping your star rating, a 30-to-45-day plan, a product walkthrough and the questions answered live
Key takeaways
- Do not wait for your district to come to you. Market your pre-K program to the district the way you market it to families.
- Under House Bill 2, a district that partners with you must pass at least 85% of its funding for that child to you, unless it gets a waiver.
- Texas Rising Star is a certification. National accreditation raises the bar nationally and adds business value. You can hold both.
- Earning a star rating is only half the job. More programs are losing their stars over licensing compliance than ever before.
- Expect zero licensing deficiencies. If you allow a margin of error, it becomes your baseline.
- The subsidy contract is between the state and the family. Hold families accountable for both daily attendance scans.
- Check attendance every morning, so missed scans are fixed long before the backdate deadline.
- Bring data, not just opinions, to lawmakers and districts: your cost of care, capacity and revenue over time.
What is squeezing Texas programs
An opening poll asked what is squeezing programs hardest right now. Losing three- and four-year-olds to districts led by far at 71%, followed by a tie between operating costs and insurance and staffing, with subsidy rules and paperwork last. Tym had predicted the same order from the programs he works with.
Tym has nearly four decades in early childhood education. His training company recently celebrated 20 years of training, coaching, consulting, risk management, human resources and licensing and compliance support. He has served on the AELL board for eight years and became president at the start of 2026. He also ran his own schools until he sold them at the end of 2024.
District pre-K partnerships
Under House Bill 2, according to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), a pre-K partnership must pass the private provider at least 85% of the funding the district receives for each student, starting with the 2025-26 school year. The commissioner can waive the requirement on request.
Tym said not as many districts partner with licensed child care providers as he would like, and many have found ways around the requirement. Recent action by the Texas Licensed Child Care Association and other groups is putting more pressure on districts. When he ran his schools, he had a successful partnership for his three- and four-year-olds, but only because he went looking for it.
Sell your program to the school district and establish that partnership.
His advice: if you already run a high-quality, developmentally appropriate pre-K program, market it to your district the same way you market it to families, and show them what an established program already looks like. There are successful partnerships out there, he added, so do not lose hope.
Texas Education Freedom Accounts
Tym noted that this is the first school year of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, including pre-K eligibility, and that there has been a lot of misunderstanding about who qualifies. Not only does the center have to qualify through its quality rating, the family has to qualify too. After the November 2026 election, he said, the governor-elect stated that one of her first actions in office would be to try to eliminate the voucher program, so its future is uncertain. His advice: be patient, take notes and give feedback.
Tell your story with data
When you talk to lawmakers, newly elected officials or your community, Tym said, do not just have a conversation. Bring numbers:
- Revenue and taxes paid, compared with earlier years such as 2018 and 2019.
- Changes to your business model, such as adding infant, toddler and preschool capacity to replace lost three- and four-year-olds.
- What families pay now compared with five years ago, and why prices have had to rise.
Texas Rising Star or national accreditation?
Programs that accept subsidized children must participate in Texas Rising Star, the state's quality initiative run by the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). A three- or four-star rating helps you qualify for partnership funding, but you then have to maintain it. Programs that do not take subsidies cannot join Texas Rising Star, and that is where national accreditation becomes your best friend, Tym said. AELL governs the National Accreditation Commission, and all of his own schools went through national accreditation.
National accreditation
An accreditation
- Raises the bar on a national level, not just the state level
- Open to programs that do not take subsidies
- Tym said it can add 1.5 to your business multiplier when you exit
Texas Rising Star
A certification
- The state's quality initiative, run by TWC
- Required if you accept subsidized children
- Higher star ratings bring higher reimbursement
With so much uncertainty about 2027 and 2028, Tym has been encouraging programs to start the accreditation process now, even if they already participate in Texas Rising Star. Anything that proves you exceed expectations will help your program. Some programs, he said, find it easier to go through national accreditation first, because the work then carries over to Texas Rising Star.
The partnership classroom award
Texas Rising Star three- and four-star programs with a formal pre-K partnership can apply for a one-time award of up to $25,000 for each new partnership classroom, according to TWC. Applications open September 1 and close January 15 each year, subject to available funds. Anna noted that the award for home-based programs is around $13,250, compared with up to $25,000 for centers. Tym admitted he has little direct experience with the award and does not know many who do. His advice was to focus on quality now, because those measures will help you whether or not you apply by January.
Every day, twice: the attendance scan
A poll asked how often programs chase a missing second scan. 31% do not take subsidies. Of those that do, "rarely" and "weekly" tied, and 15% chase missing scans daily. Tym said a very large share of Texas centers accept subsidies, and the move to the new attendance system has been rocky, especially for programs that work with several local workforce boards.
The biggest mistake he sees is not communicating with families or holding them accountable. The subsidy contract is between the state and the family, not the state and the center, so it is the family's responsibility to record attendance properly so the center gets paid. With tens of thousands of children on waiting lists, he said, other families would gladly follow the rules.
Put it in your policy manual
Set out the attendance tracking expectation and the consequences if families do not meet it. Tym offered to help programs draft the policy.
Check attendance every morning
Make it one person's job, for example at 10:00 a.m. each day, so a missed scan is corrected quickly.
Do not rely on the backdate period
You can backdate, but the longer you wait, the more you risk losing those funds.
Keeping your stars
A third poll asked where programs sit in Texas Rising Star. 38% are four-star, 25% are three-star and 28% are not part of it yet. Tym called Texas Rising Star a process, not just a rating. The value is in what your facility and people go through to get there: growth and a willingness to do things differently. If you only want to meet minimum standards, he said, it is not for you.
Getting there takes time. Anna noted that earning a star rating can take around 24 months, and that what moves a program up includes 12 clean months of licensing history with a low deficiency count, a director account on the workforce registry and documented practice. The review is of what you can show. There is no shortcut, Tym said, especially while TWC is stretched. His advice is to be completely ready on assessment day so you master it on the first visit, because a follow-up visit or a low score in one area slows everything down.
But the point he most wanted to make was about keeping your stars. Pointing to the 9% shown in the session, he said, "That 9% is a lot of money," and you want to keep it on the table. Over the last 12 to 18 months, he has seen more programs lose their stars over licensing compliance than ever before. Significant deficiencies can take you off the program or into corrective action.
- Know the expectations, and make sure every teacher does too.
- Live them every day. It is not a show for when assessors or licensing inspectors walk in.
- Own it. It is not your mentor's job to get you four stars. It is yours.
- Build a culture of accountability, where teachers support each other and raise gaps so the right training and coaching can happen.
- Moving up from two stars? Reflect honestly on where you scored low and set measurable, timely, achievable goals.
If you allow that margin of error, then margin of error is going to become your baseline.
Tym described a board that asked him how many licensing deficiencies were acceptable on a monitoring visit. His answer was zero. Minimum standards are the minimum, he said, and he knows many programs with clean five-year compliance histories.
See it in action
Anna showed how illumine helps Texas programs manage seats, inquiries, attendance and subsidies:
Attendance forecasting
See occupancy by room, upcoming open seats and ratio alerts months ahead, so you know where partnership students could fit.
AI inquiry forms
Describe a form, for example one that asks whether a child will use a subsidy, and the AI builds it with your logo and colors. Embed it on your website or share it by link or QR code. See admission management.
Waitlist to enrollment
Move a child from the waitlist to active by choosing the room, status and program, with labels you can rename to match your center.
KinderConnect integration
illumine pushes attendance into the state's KinderConnect system, so your subsidy attendance is recorded and paid.
Contactless check-in
Families check in with a QR code, a PIN at reception or geofencing, which Anna said is one of the accepted options in Texas. See digital attendance.
Subsidy billing
Track subsidy charges, remitted and pending amounts, co-payments, split-family payments and children with no tuition plan assigned. See subsidy management and child care billing.
Tym said one of the biggest complaints he hears from schools about software is managing subsidies, and many still rely on spreadsheets. Seeing subsidies handled properly, he said, made him excited for the programs out there.
Your next 30 to 45 days
- Contact TWC to ask what partnerships exist or are developing, and get in on a pilot if you can.
- Decide which pathway fits you: Texas Rising Star, national accreditation, a district partnership or a combination.
- Run a cost of care analysis. It is strong data for districts, lawmakers and your community.
- Compare your capacity by age group every five years, and forecast capacity in your area.
- Assign one person to check attendance scans every day.
- Introduce yourself to newly elected officials and invite them to see a high-quality program.
Publicly funded pre-K is not new, Tym said. Texas has worked with it for decades. You can keep fighting it or accept it and find the best way forward, which may mean changing your business model or selling your program to a district as a partner. Focus on what you can control.
Questions from the session
Can a program be in Texas Rising Star and nationally accredited at the same time?
Yes. All of Tym's schools were four-star and nationally accredited. He has also seen both help programs with general liability insurance costs and even in litigation after a serious incident.
Can districts partner with programs that do not accept TWC subsidies?
Tym said it depends on the district and the type of partnership, so check with your district for its rules and expectations.
Should we pursue a formal or an informal partnership?
That depends on what your district allows, Tym said. He is not aware of many programs with informal partnerships. Note that the TWC partnership classroom award requires a formal partnership.
Can staff do one of the two daily scans?
Tym's understanding is that the parent must do both, with an exception for after-school children, and he said he would follow up to confirm. One attendee asks parents to drive back to sign in or out if they miss a scan, which Anna praised.
Does illumine connect with KinderConnect for attendance?
Yes. illumine integrates with KinderConnect and pushes time and attendance into the state system, and it supports the scanning rules, including parent check-in and geofencing.
Resources mentioned
- The Texas Readiness Pack, available to download at the top of this recap, plus a professional development certificate and the recording, emailed to attendees.
- Help from Tym the Trainer with attendance policies, cost of care analysis and licensing and compliance.
- A related session: Montessori in the Free Pre-K Era, on how publicly funded pre-K is affecting Montessori schools in other states.
Focus on what you do have control over instead of what you don't have control over.
For more on running a sustainable program, read how to assess your preschool's financial sustainability, what to include in your parent handbook or how enrollment follow-up automation works. To see how illumine supports Texas providers, book a live demo.