We drive policy change to improve the lives of Texas children today for a stronger Texas tomorrow.

Our Mission

We envision a Texas in which all children grow up to be healthy, safe, successful, and on a path to fulfill their promise.

We are a statewide, non-profit, non-partisan, multi-issue children's policy organization. We develop policy solutions, produce research, and engage Texas community leaders to educate policymakers, the media, and the public about what works to improve the well-being of Texas children and families.

Funded by a variety of foundations and individual donations, our work covers child protective services, juvenile justice, mental well-being, maternal and child health, early childhood, and the ways that each of those policy areas work together to shape children's lives and the future of Texas.

The organization was launched over 30 years ago by Phil Strickland, then-director of the Christian Life Commission, Baptist General Convention of Texas. 

Examples of Working with State Leaders and Partners to Establish New State Policies

  • During the 2023 legislative session, we helped lead the advocacy effort that successfully extended Medicaid health coverage for moms from two months after pregnancy to 12 months.

  • We successfully increased state funding in 2023 for Early Childhood Intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities.

  • We worked with partners and legislators in 2023 to pass legislation and funding to support youth in foster care by providing bank accounts to older youth, ensuring youth in foster care facilities are placed with families as quickly as possible, and more.

  • We successfully worked with officials at the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) in 2022 to ensure more low birth weight babies have access to Early Childhood Intervention.

  • In 2022, we helped change state policy so more women with newborns can successfully transition to Healthy Texas Women when they are no longer eligible for Medicaid for Pregnant Women.

  • We helped lead the coalitions pushing two significant health care bills that passed the Legislature in 2021: A bill extending health coverage for moms after childbirth and a bill cutting down on kids losing their health insurance.

  • We launched the Texas Early Childhood English Learner Initiative in 2020 and helped pass four of the Initiative’s policy proposals in 2021, including finally establishing a limit on the size of pre-k classes.

  • We worked closely with legislators to pass proposals in 2021 to support kids in foster care, including: moving children with high needs from institutionalized facilities to loving families as quickly as possible; improving support for older youth in foster care; and developing more foster care placements for unique populations, such as pregnant and parenting youth and trafficking survivors.

  • As a leader on youth suicide prevention policy efforts in the state, we helped legislators pass bills in 2021 to improve suicide prevention practices in foster care facilities and ensure data-informed suicide prevention strategies are included in state interagency coordination and strategic planning efforts.

  • We helped secure state funding for full-day pre-k through years of advocacy as well as our work during and leading up to the 2019 legislative session.

  • As the leading voice at the Texas Capitol in recent years for school-based student mental health supports, we played a key role in passing new laws on this issue in 2019.

  • We led the effort to craft and pass legislation in 2019 to ensure that more Texas mothers have transportation to prenatal care and postpartum appointments.

  • We developed and led efforts to successfully pass legislation in 2019 to expand support for pregnant and parenting youth in foster care.

  • We played a key role in passing legislation in 2019 to ensure Texas collects data on child care safety and caregiver-child ratios.

  • We successfully crafted and passed legislation in 2019 to improve nutrition and opportunities for active play in child care.

  • We secured a significant increase in state funding in 2019 for Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) for babies and toddlers with disabilities and delays.

  • We led the effort to successfully pass legislation in 2017 to improve access to post-partum depression screenings for 200,000 new mothers.

  • We proposed and helped pass a new law in 2015 requiring stronger statewide training and screening requirements for foster parents to enhance the safety and success of children in foster care.

  • After we led efforts to make pre-k class size and student-teacher ratios a centerpiece of the HB 4 in 2015, the Legislature passed a provision to add ratio guidelines to the new pre-k grant program.

  • We helped pass legislation in 2017 to end nearly all out-of-school suspensions for Texas students in pre-k through second grade.

  • We secured passage of legislation in 2015 to provide broader authority for the state Ombudsman tasked with improving youth safety in the juvenile justice system.

  • We led efforts to successfully pass legislation in 2017 to improve coordination of services for youth dually involved in the juvenile justice and foster care systems.

  • Following our advocacy for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department to ensure juvenile probation departments are using validated risk and needs assessment tools to appropriately assess youth, the state agency took action to ensure more departments made the transition to validated tools.

Examples of Driving Policy Debates and Improvements with Our Research, Analysis, and Communications

  • During the 2023 legislative session, we helped shine a light on the need for the Legislature to address the state’s child care crisis, leading to an unprecedented proposal (that ultimately did not pass) for state funding for child care.

  • We launched the Texas School Readiness Dashboard in 2022 to highlight the importance of school readiness, provide a more comprehensive view of school readiness, and offer the data and recommendations needed to drive and measure improvements.

  • Our two reports on suspensions in early grades led to critical community conversations in school districts with particularly high pre-k suspension rates and produced significant media coverage of the topic throughout Texas.

  • Our report on postpartum maternal health in Central Texas is driving conversations among local health care providers, foundations, community leaders, and others about ways to improve support for local mothers.

  • We published the most comprehensive report to date on teen pregnancy and parenting in Texas foster care, generating extensive press coverage statewide of the challenge and our policy recommendations.

  • Our reports on the loss of Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) services for toddlers with disabilities helped push legislators to increase funding in 2017 and generated media coverage throughout the state.

  • By publishing op-eds, generating press coverage, appearing in the media, working with legislators, and taking other steps, our team helped elevate and shape debates on many of the state’s top children’s policy issues in recent years, including maternal health and mortality, CPS reform, funding and standards for pre-k, 17-year-olds in the adult justice system, therapy cuts for children with disabilities, Congressional decisions on funding for Medicaid and CHIP, and more.

Examples of Working in Partnership with Community Organizations

As part of our work to highlight local successes and promising practices and to ensure state policies reflect communities’ goals and needs: 

  • We’ve gathered and published local input on foster care in Houston and East Texas; on ECI services in the DFW region, the Gulf Coast, and Northeast Texas; on Family Connects programs in Bexar County, Victoria County, and Central Texas; and on pre-k needs in multiple school districts throughout the state.

  • We held a summit to bring together stakeholders in the overlapping but too-often separate spheres of childhood trauma, maternal health, infant health equity, and support for young children with disabilities.

  • As part our work to share lessons learned by community organizations and others, we convened a three-part discussion series on the opioid crisis, substance use in Texas, state policies and programs, and the impact on Texas children.

  • We organized full-house legislative briefings in the Capitol on early education, foster care, children’s mental health, and juvenile justice issues.