{"id":312301,"date":"2026-05-28T12:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/312301\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T12:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:09:09","slug":"dallas-county-childcare-deserts-becoming-chronic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/312301\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas County childcare deserts becoming chronic"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new analysis<\/a>\u00a0from advocacy group Children at Risk found that 263 Texas ZIP codes,\u00a0roughly 14%, are now classified as chronic childcare deserts, meaning they have lacked enough childcare seats for at least three consecutive years. In Dallas County, 17 ZIP codes\u00a0rank\u00a0as\u00a0childcare deserts, and 12 of them are chronic,\u00a0representing\u00a0roughly 13%\u00a0of ZIP codes countywide.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a childcare desert,\u00a0the number of children under age 6 with working parents is at least three times higher than the number of licensed childcare seats, according to\u00a0Children at Risk. The group\u2019s new \u201cchronic desert<\/a>\u201d label applies that same standard over time,\u00a0identifying\u00a0communities that remained\u00a0deserts\u00a0from 2022 through 2025.<\/p>\n

Dallas County has about 112,600 licensed childcare seats, or roughly 83 seats for every 100 children of working parents, according to the report. Advocates say that countywide number masks deep gaps in access to affordable, high-quality care for low-income families.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a significant barrier,\u201d said Kim Kofron, executive director of early childhood education at Children at Risk, during a recent virtual\u00a0news\u00a0conference. \u201cLiving in childcare deserts for three out of these five years limits not only the child\u2019s learning abilities and opportunities, but also that family\u2019s economic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Statewide, the report\u00a0identified\u00a0413\u00a0childcare desert ZIP codes.\u00a0About 64%\u00a0are considered chronic. The analysis also counted 884 subsidy childcare deserts, which\u00a0largely affect\u00a0low-income families.<\/p>\n

The report also identified 938 Texas Rising Star deserts. About 76% of low-income Texas children under age 6 with working parents live in a subsidy childcare desert, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Texas Rising Star is the state\u2019s quality rating system for childcare providers\u00a0participating\u00a0in the subsidy system, and those deserts\u00a0represent\u00a0areas where families lack access to high-quality, state-certified care.<\/p>\n

Childcare in Dallas County\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those shortages are especially visible in Dallas County, said\u00a0Shari Anderson, vice president of\u00a0child care\u00a0assistance\u00a0at\u00a0ChildCareGroup, which administers public childcare funding in the\u00a0region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christina Torres-Garcia, an Irving single mother of four, said finding dependable and affordable childcare for her 5-year-old son has directly shaped her ability to work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing I had to sacrifice was working at night,\u201d she said. \u201cThat way I can be available during the day for my child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres-Garcia said reliable childcare gave her stability as a working parent, especially while raising a child with special needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish policymakers understood that childcare is not just a convenience,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s essential for families to work, support their children and remain financially stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local leaders are trying to improve both quality and access, Anderson said. Dallas County and the city of Dallas have each established a 100% property tax exemption for eligible childcare providers in certain areas, an incentive advocates hope will help centers survive and expand.<\/p>\n

The report underscores\u00a0a broader\u00a0statewide tension.\u00a0Texas has improved childcare quality in recent years, but supply has not kept pace with demand.<\/p>\n

Across Texas, the number of licensed childcare seats increased by\u00a0roughly 3,000\u00a0over the past year to about 995,000.\u00a0Over the same period, the number of children under age 6 with working parents grew to\u00a0roughly 1.16\u00a0million, an increase of about 20,000.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the share of subsidy providers participating in the Texas Rising Star quality system jumped from 46% to 74% in one year after a 2021 state law required providers accepting subsidy dollars to receive ratings through the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some communities, providers have doubled or even tripled their participation in these high-quality care programs,\u201d said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk. \u201cWe\u2019ve\u00a0made real progress, especially in improving quality, but now we\u00a0have to\u00a0match that progress with meaningful resources and access and capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

That mismatch is especially stark for low-income families. The report estimates\u00a0roughly 441,000\u00a0low-income children under 6 with working parents live in subsidy deserts, while\u00a0nearly 469,000\u00a0live in areas without access to high-quality Texas Rising Star care.<\/p>\n

The shortages extend beyond large cities. Children at Risk\u2019s chronic desert map shows heavy concentrations in rural regions, including East and northeast Texas.<\/p>\n

Dakota Finney, a childcare provider in Tyler and board member of Champions for Children, said many East Texas communities have seen centers close, forcing parents to drive long distances or rely on informal care.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildcare\u00a0providers\u00a0are doing everything they can to stay open, to improve quality, to expand their capacity, but the systems they\u2019re operating in aren\u2019t enough to encourage that growth in the areas that we\u00a0need it\u00a0the most,\u201d Kofron said.<\/p>\n

Children at Risk is urging state leaders to use the\u00a0Texas\u00a0Legislature\u2019s interim period, the ongoing Sunset Advisory Commission review of key agencies and Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s Task Force on Early Childhood Education and Care to pursue deeper reforms. The group\u2019s recommendations include increasing reimbursement rates for providers, investing specifically in chronic desert ZIP codes, expanding childcare\u00a0scholarships\u00a0and reducing administrative barriers for families.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas cannot sustain a strong economy if hundreds of thousands of children lack access to quality care and their parents can\u2019t fully participate in the workforce,\u201d\u00a0Kofron\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News\u00a0retains\u00a0full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new analysis\u00a0from advocacy group Children at Risk found that 263 Texas ZIP codes,\u00a0roughly 14%, are now classified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,96674,102,104,103,223,95012,93339,89512,89138,92238,89146,90636],"class_list":["post-312301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-business-jobs","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news","tag-news-texas","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-dallas-county","tag-tp-early-childhood-education","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-workforce","tag-tp-irving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}