The Texas Workforce Commission sets, once a year, a number that decides how many Texas children the state will subsidize in child care on an average day. On Tuesday morning it lowered that number for the fiscal year beginning October 1, and it lowered the current year’s target too, so that the local boards would not walk into October carrying more children than the new figure allows.
Allison Wilson of the agency’s Child Care and Early Learning Division presented it as arithmetic. “Based on the available funding and updated cost and case mix data, we are projecting to serve an average of just under 132.7 thousand children per day in BCY 27,” she told the three commissioners. Then the comparison, delivered in the same register: “Due to higher costs for child care and level funding, BCY 27’s target is significantly lower than last year’s target, which was about 146.7 thousand.”
Those two figures are the story. The commission’s own discussion paper puts the Board Contract Year 2026 target at 146,736 children a day and the BCY2027 target at 132,689 — a reduction of 14,047 seats, about 9.5%. Texas has, by the most recent published count, more than 100,000 children waiting for a child care scholarship.
Wilson named the cause in a single clause and did not elaborate: higher costs for child care and level funding. Nothing in the presentation suggested the state is serving fewer families because fewer families need it. The money did not grow and the price of care did, so the number of children the money reaches went down.
The second half of the recommendation is the part that reaches families before October. “For this reason, we are also recommending lowering the board’s targets for the final quarter of our current BCY 26,” Wilson said. “This will help ensure boards do not begin the new year over enrolled.” In practice that instructs the twenty-eight local workforce boards to slow enrollment now rather than absorb the drop all at once on October 1 — a managed glide down rather than a cliff, and one that starts immediately.
Wilson also told the commission that the targets already reflect money the commission moved into direct care earlier this summer. “I also want to note that due to cost pressures and the level of demand for child care services, you approved the cancellation of some statewide initiatives earlier this summer,” she said. “That freed up $29 million for direct care and that is reflected in these BCY 27 targets.” The 132,689 figure, in other words, is the number after $29 million was pulled out of statewide programs and redirected into paying for seats.
One commissioner asked one question, and it was not about the cut.
He wanted to know about the rate-setting methodology — the formula that determines what the state pays a provider per child, and therefore how far the money stretches. “If I understood correctly as you laid that out, the methodology for rate setting is last set in 2024. Is that correct?” Told it was, he pressed: “And is that a regular recurring thing that the commission has to take up within certain time frames? Do we do we know when the rate setting methodology will come back up?”
Wilson’s answer was that there is no schedule. “So, before 2024, we brought forward something every year and like kind of tweaked it. Um but that was kind of as we were making incremental changes and and how we did it. So, we certainly, you know, when we look at 28, we we can revisit if that’s something that the commission would like to entertain.”
That is the whole of the deliberation. The commissioner thanked her, asked to be kept in the loop on rate-setting conversations, and the chair called for a motion. The motion approved both the BCY2027 targets and the modifications to BCY2026. It was seconded. “I’ll also vote yes. The motion passes.”
Hearing at a glance
Governing body
Texas Workforce Commission — three members appointed by the Governor, one each representing employers, labor and the public. Chairman Joe Esparza, commissioner representing employers; Alberto Treviño III, commissioner representing labor; Brent Connett, commissioner representing the public, term to February 1, 2031. Executive Director Ed Serna.
When
Tuesday, August 11, 2026, beginning at 10:00 a.m. The child care item was taken up after a short recess, following the appeals dockets. Total meeting length 42:23.
Archived video
“TWC Commission Meeting | 8-11-2026” (42:23), Texas Workforce Commission YouTube channel, posted August 11, 2026. Auto-generated captions only.