Daycares in Texas

Texas scores licensed daycares through Texas Rising Star (TRS), the state's quality rating program. TRS scores participating providers across three star tiers (Two-Star, Three-Star, and Four-Star — there is no One-Star or Five-Star) using four categories, with teacher- child interactions weighted 40 percent of the overall rating: director and staff qualifications and training, teacher-child interactions, curriculum, and family education and engagement. Participation in TRS is voluntary and adoption among Texas providers is low — most licensed Texas centers don't carry a TRS rating.

Texas's minimum legal requirements meet the standards published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the leading professional accreditation body for early- childhood programs and the most widely cited benchmark for high- quality care, at the infant age band, but the state's toddler and preschool requirements are among the loosest in the country. Texas caps infant ratios at 1:4 (matching NAEYC), toddler ratios at 1:9 (NAEYC: 1:6), and preschool ratios at 1:18 (NAEYC: 1:10). Group sizes are also looser than NAEYC recommends, at 10 for infants (NAEYC: 8), 18 for toddlers (NAEYC: 12), and 35 for preschool (NAEYC: 20). The state requires only a high school diploma for a lead teacher in a licensed center, where NAEYC's professional standard is a bachelor's degree. Required pre-service training is 24 hours (NAEYC: ≥2,080), and required ongoing professional development is 24 hours per year, close to NAEYC's recommended 25.

These minimum legal requirements apply to every licensed daycare in Texas, regardless of its Texas Rising Star rating. They are one of the Structural inputs in every Childery rating shown above. The rating distribution above combines that Structural input with Texas Rising Star scores and other Process inputs to produce the Overall scores. For the full breakdown, see the Texas methodology page.