The HB 2310 Plan Identifies Opportunities for the Legislature to Improve Access to Pre-k and Child Care for Texas Kids with Disabilities

High-quality early childhood education gives young children the opportunity to learn, develop, and build the skills they need for success. But rising child care costs, workforce shortages, and inadequate funding make it difficult for many Texas families to find available child care seats.

For children with disabilities and developmental delays, the barriers are even greater. Families often struggle to find child care providers with the staff, training, and resources to meet their child’s needs. As a result, many children miss opportunities to learn alongside their peers.

Texas has taken an important step toward addressing these challenges. House Bill 2310, passed by the Legislature in 2025, directed the Texas Education Agency (TEA), Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), and Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to develop a four-year plan to improve early childhood inclusion. 

The resulting Texas Early Childhood Inclusion Plan, released in August, reflects input from more than 1,200 families, educators, child care providers, and other stakeholders.

Texans Care for Children actively partnered with the state agencies throughout the development of the plan, convening a child care advisory group and conducting various family interviews in order to make recommendations centered on the voices of both expert practitioners and families. 

At a time when policymakers are studying the ways early childhood functions are split across different agencies, the Texas Early Childhood Inclusion Plan is a great example of how multiple state agencies can coordinate on early childhood policy and collaborate towards a common goal that benefits families. 

What stakeholder recommendations are identified in the HB 2310 plan?

The plan includes survey results from 1,258 stakeholders, consisting mostly of child care providers (35%) and families (30%). Stakeholders identified several barriers to inclusion, such as shortages of qualified professionals, including early childhood special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, and occupational therapists. 

Families also reported challenges navigating the transition from Early Childhood Intervention (which serves kids under age 3 through community groups that contract with the state) to Early Childhood Special Education (which serves children over age 3 through public schools). Additionally, families shared that inconsistent terminology across agencies can make it harder for families and providers to understand available services.

The report explains that stakeholders offered a range of recommendations to address these barriers, including:

• Expand prekindergarten eligibility to children with disabilities – The Texas House supported this provision in House Bill 2 during the 2025 session, but it was removed in the Senate version.

• Increase funding to recruit, train, and retain staff – The state estimates that the average cost of child care will have grown from $580 per month in 2022 to over $900 per month in 2027 — an increase of more than 55% in just five years. As child care becomes increasingly unaffordable to families, providers struggle to recruit and retain quality staff.

• Simplify access to the Child Care Scholarship Inclusion Assistance Rate – The inclusion assistance rate is intended to support child care for children with disabilities. Only 400 of the 130,000-plus Texas students drawing down child care scholarship funds from the TWC are receiving this inclusion assistance rate. Texans Care for Children testified in support of this recommendation before the Sunset Advisory Commission during their August interim hearing.
• Address service gaps during the ECI-to-ECSE transition – Children with disabilities and developmental delays can spend months without necessary health and learning services as they transition from ECI to ECSE, while many families and child care providers feel left out of the transition planning process.

We strongly support these recommendations as they focus on the fundamental factors that shape inclusivity in early childhood education.

What changes are TEA, TWC, and HHSC committing to?

The agencies who crafted this plan laid out a strategy to improve early childhood inclusion that they can commit to under their current authority and funding levels. This resulted in a set of recommendations that, unlike the stakeholder recommendations, were more specific and technical in nature. 

The agencies organized their strategy around three goals:

1) expanding access to inclusive early childhood education

2) building a sustainable workforce 

3) improving communication among agencies and with families

Under each goal, the agencies identified “activities” or commitments to continue existing efforts, launch new initiatives, and explore additional strategies. Here are nine of the 61 activities laid out in the plan:

Continuing existing efforts

• HHSC will work to increase the share of toddlers with an ECI-to-ECSE transition meeting scheduled with their school district at least 90 days before their third birthday.
• TWC will continue the Early Learning Intervention Training and Education (ELITE) grant to provide training and technical assistance for child care providers and local workforce development boards serving children with disabilities and developmental delays.
• TEA and TWC will support the development of up to 375 additional prekindergarten-child care partnerships by 2030.

Creating new opportunities

• TEA, TWC, and HHSC will align terminology and definitions related to early childhood inclusion with national standards to improve communication across agencies and with families.
• The agencies will implement an Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS) to better inform state policy and help families identify inclusive programs.
• TEA will propose rule changes related to developmental delays in order to support continuity of services during ECI-to-ECSE transitions by September 1, 2027.

Exploring additional strategies

• HHSC will evaluate the impact of designated transition coordinators and consider expanding these roles across the state. 
• TEA will explore providing up to $5 million grant funding to support and train ECSE educators.
• TEA and HHSC will explore Communities of Practice to strengthen collaboration between ECI providers and school district ECSE teams.

What role should the Texas Legislature play in the 2027 session in creating inclusive early childhood education? 

The Texas Early Childhood Inclusion Plan serves as a necessary guide for improving access to high-quality early childhood education for children with disabilities and developmental delays. However, these state agencies cannot implement every recommendation without the funding and authority the Legislature provides. The challenges identified in the report underscore that lawmakers need to invest in inclusive, high-quality child care. 

We are hopeful that the Legislature will use this plan as a roadmap for supporting young Texans with disabilities and their parents.

The 90th Legislative Session, beginning January 12, 2027, is an opportunity for lawmakers to invest in these stakeholder recommendations. Texas families, child care providers, and educators have identified many of the barriers standing in the way of inclusion. The next step is giving state agencies and local providers the resources they need to address them.

Texans Care for Children gratefully acknowledges Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc., for their financial support of this publication. The opinions expressed in this document are those of Texans Care for Children and do not necessarily reflect the views of Methodist Healthcare Ministries.