As Director of Early Learning Policy, David Feigen leads Texans Care for Children’s work on pre-k, child care, and other early childhood policy priorities.
Since joining Texans Care for Children in 2018, David has played a leading role in successfully advocating for the inclusion of full-day funding in the state’s 2019 school finance package, passing legislation to improve nutrition and active play in child care, passing legislation to study child care safety and child-teacher ratios, and passing bills to support emergent bilingual students. He is frequently invited to testify at the Texas Legislature, speak at conferences, and comment in the media. David serves on the Partnership for Healthy Texas steering committee, the DSHS Early Childcare Obesity Prevention Committee, and the Early Matters Policy Committee. He has also served as a leader of the Texas Early Childhood English Learner Initiative. David led Texans Care for Children’s work to launch the Texas School Readiness Dashboard in 2022.
In addition to publishing policy briefs, blogs, and other materials, he has published the following research reports:
- The Texas Early Childhood English Learner Initiative Policy Roadmap
- Keeping Kids in Class II: An Analysis of Suspensions in Pre-k Through 2nd Grade in Texas Schools in 2017-18
- The Research is Clear: High-Quality Pre-k Pays Off
- Next Steps for Texas Pre-k: A Survey of School Districts’ Pre-k Priorities and Challenges
You can see more of David’s work on pre-k, child care, and other issues here.
Before joining Texans Care for Children, David was a Legislative Director at the Texas House of Representatives, where he shaped and executed legislative agendas focused on expanding opportunity for all Texans. Working with a diverse group of stakeholders, David achieved numerous legislative victories on behalf of early childhood education, juvenile justice, and child protection. David graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Government and a B.S. in Political Communication.
