In Texas, child care and early learning programs must adhere to minimum standards defined by Child Care Regulation (CCR). These standards help ensure the health and safety of children in care outside of the home. As the child care regulatory and licensing agency for Texas, CCR monitors programs for compliance with minimum standards and may issue corrective or adverse actions when programs fail to comply. CCR also makes this essential licensing and inspection data available to the public.
To participate in TWC’s Child Care Services program, child care programs must achieve Entry Level designation by demonstrating a high rate of compliance with CCR’s minimum standards. Texas Rising Star provides the next step.
For an early learning program to meet and maintain Texas Rising Star certification criteria, the program must demonstrate consistent compliance with CCR minimum standards.
Texas Rising Star is intended to measurably improve the quality of child care and early learning programs and thereby enhance children’s development and promote school readiness.
Texas Rising Star provides a systematic approach to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in child care and early learning programs. Texas Rising Star assigns a score to early learning programs that meet a set of defined program standards. These standards exceed those required by CCR minimum standards. By participating in Texas Rising Star, programs engage in a process of continuous quality improvement.
As a quality rating and improvement system, Texas Rising Star includes the following key components:
- Standards criteria that are understandable, measurable, and verifiable
- Accountability and transparent monitoring to assess achievement of and ongoing compliance with quality standards and to validate the assignment of scores
- Support to encourage participation and improve quality, including training, technical assistance, mentoring, and peer-learning opportunities
- Consumer education to inform families and the community about the importance of quality in child care and early learning programs
- Financial incentives to help programs improve learning environments, attain higher scores, and sustain long-term quality
Learn more about Texas Rising Star quality improvement.
Find A Texas Rising Star-certified Program
Looking for a certified Texas Rising Star early learning program in your area?
Below is a map where you can zoom in/out to view specific regions and click on any icon to view the details for Texas Rising Star-certified early learning program, denoted by a colored dot. You can also select the local workforce area of the state you wish to view as well and the certification level (Two-, Three-, or Four-Star) of the programs that are certified.
The map of Texas Rising Star-certified early learning programs on this page is updated on a monthly basis. To confirm a program’s certification, please contact your local workforce development board.