There are almost 108,000 young children in child care in Tarrant County every work day. These children are in centers, family child care programs or being cared for by a neighbor or family member.

In Tarrant County, there are 1,454 licensed/registered facilities. Over 7% of these centers are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and almost 2% of family child care programs are accredited by the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). National accreditation is the highest benchmark of quality.

• 25% of employees with children have problems with child care availability 3-5 times in a 3 month period.
• Employers nationally pay $3 billion a year due to absenteeism directly related to child care.

The Fort Worth ISD spends $5M a year on children who have to repeat kindergarten, first or second grade. Children who attend high-quality programs prior to entering school:

• Are less likely to be retained in grade and less frequently assigned to special education classes; and
• Have better school attendance rates and lower dropout rates.

Children who were enrolled in high-quality programs are:

• Less likely to participate in at-risk behaviors as teens;
• Have a lower rate of unemployment.
• Show potential for higher lifetime earnings.

In 2002, the State of Texas allocated $2M to improve the quality of care in Tarrant County . By 2005, that funding had dropped to less than $300K.