Texas › Child care costs
What child care costs in Texas right now.
State survey rates by age and city. Plus the help that exists.
Texas prices child care by the day. The state’s own survey, run by UT Austin for the Texas Workforce Commission, puts the median full-day center rate for a baby under a year at $45.00 (2026 survey, report dated Jun 15, 2026). Dallas runs higher, El Paso a lot lower, and rates went up about 7% in a year. Below are the rates by age and area, what the state scholarship pays, and who gets free pre-K.
Numbers last checked October 31, 2026Statewide rates by age
These are full-day daily rates from the 2026 Texas Child Care Market Rate Survey. The survey sampled 2,906 facilities between September 2025 and May 2026, and 1,151 answered (a 43.0% response rate). The survey reports only daily rates. The “five days” column is our own arithmetic (daily median × 5), not a figure from the survey, and real weekly tuition can differ.
| Age | Daily median | Daily mean | Five days at the median | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licensed child care centers | ||||
| Infant, 0–11 months | $45.00 | $45.40 | $225 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| Infant, 12–17 months | $44.80 | $45.20 | $224 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| Toddler, 18–23 months | $43.20 | $43.60 | $216 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| Toddler, 2 years | $42.80 | $43.20 | $214 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| Preschool, 3 years | $41.00 | $41.40 | $205 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| Preschool, 4 years | $40.80 | $41.20 | $204 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| Preschool, 5 years | $40.40 | $40.80 | $202 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| School age, 6–13 years | $39.40 | $39.80 | $197 | 2026 survey, Table 11 |
| Licensed child care homes | ||||
| Infant, 0–11 months | $41.00 | $41.40 | $205 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
| Infant, 12–17 months | $42.00 | $42.40 | $210 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
| Toddler, 18–23 months | $40.40 | $40.80 | $202 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
| Toddler, 2 years | $40.00 | $40.40 | $200 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
| Preschool, 3 years | $39.00 | $39.40 | $195 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
| Preschool, 4 years | $39.40 | $39.80 | $197 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
| Preschool, 5 years | $39.80 | $40.20 | $199 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
| School age, 6–13 years | $38.20 | $38.60 | $191 | 2026 survey, Table 12 |
“Licensed homes” are larger home-based programs licensed by the state. The survey also covers smaller registered homes, which are not shown here. The 2026 report says center rates rose 7.1% from the 2025 survey and home rates rose more than 10%, while rates for 5-year-olds rose 8.8% (p. 13).
Rates by area
The survey breaks results out by the state’s 28 local workforce areas. These are median full-day daily rates from the 2026 Supplemental Report. Tarrant County is LWDA 5 (Fort Worth), Greater Dallas is LWDA 6, and Borderplex is LWDA 10 (El Paso).
| Area | Infant (0–11 mo) | Toddler (18–23 mo) | Preschool (4 yr) | School age (6–13) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licensed centers, daily median | |||||
| Greater Dallas (465 of 687 centers reported) | $49.60 | $47.80 | $45.20 | $43.80 | Supplemental, p. 25 |
| Tarrant County (416 of 623) | $46.80 | $45.20 | $43.00 | $41.60 | Supplemental, p. 22 |
| Borderplex / El Paso (196 of 242) | $35.20 | $34.00 | $32.60 | $31.80 | Supplemental, p. 37 |
| Texas, statewide | $45.00 | $43.20 | $40.80 | $39.40 | Final report, Table 11 |
| Licensed homes, daily median | |||||
| Greater Dallas (50 of 83 homes reported) | $45.40 | $44.80 | $43.80 | $42.60 | Supplemental, p. 26 |
| Tarrant County (35 of 94) | $43.20 | $42.60 | $41.80 | $40.60 | Supplemental, p. 23 |
| Texas, statewide | $41.00 | $40.40 | $39.40 | $38.20 | Final report, Table 12 |
At the top of the Dallas center range, the 75th-percentile infant rate is $55.00 a day (p. 25). Home counts in Tarrant and Dallas are small, so treat those rates as rougher. We could not read the Gulf Coast (Houston), Capital Area (Austin) or Alamo (San Antonio) tables from the online PDF, so they are not in this table yet. The next section shows what the state pays providers there.
Houston, Austin and San Antonio: what the state pays
The same 2026 report lists the average maximum daily rate each workforce board pays providers who take child care scholarships, and the share of the local market that rate can buy. A low percentile means local prices sit well above what the subsidy pays. These are payment ceilings, not tuition quotes.
Source: 2026 Market Rate Survey final report, Table 19 (p. 31). Austin’s maximum is the highest of these areas yet reaches less than half the market, which tells you Austin-area care costs more than these figures alone suggest. Texas Rising Star providers get a higher “enhanced” rate: $58.34 in the Capital Area (68th percentile) and $45.21 on the Gulf Coast (78th).
Help paying: child care scholarships (CCS)
Texas calls its subsidy a child care scholarship. TWC funds it and your local Workforce Solutions board runs it. Families pay a sliding-scale share of the cost, and the provider gets the rest from the state.
Who qualifies
- Children younger than 13, or under 19 with a disability, who live in Texas and are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants (Texas Child Care Solutions).
- Household income at or below 85% of the state median, with assets under $1 million, and a parent who is working, looking for work, or in school or training. Families experiencing homelessness and those with a deployed military parent also qualify (Texas Child Care Solutions).
- For Oct 1, 2026 through Sep 30, 2027, the 85% line is $5,406 a month for a family of two, $6,678 for three, $7,950 for four and $9,223 for five (Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast). The line is a statewide standard, but check your local board.
How to apply, and the wait
- Apply online through your local board. In the Houston region that is the KinderConnect system, with 13 weeks of income records and proof of residency. The Gulf Coast office has 20 days to process a complete application.
- There is a waiting list. Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast says it currently has one and does not give a wait time.
- Funding: for the 2026 budget year TWC allocated $1.44 billion to local boards, enough for an average of about 148,000 children a day. The Legislature’s extra $100 million over two years was expected to add about 5,000 children a year (TWC, Aug 11, 2025).
Texas Rising Star
Texas Rising Star is the state’s quality rating for programs that take scholarship children. Certified programs meet standards above the state’s minimum licensing rules and are rated Two-Star, Three-Star or Four-Star. Higher stars earn higher payment rates for scholarship children (Texas Child Care Solutions FAQ).
- In the 2026 survey, 60.2% of centers said they were Rising Star certified, up from 44.7% in 2025. Among homes, 25.1% were, up from 19.8%.
- Statewide, the enhanced rate for centers averages $45.11 a day (78th percentile of the market), against a regular maximum of $41.24 (59th percentile).
- To check any licensed provider’s inspection and compliance history, use the state’s Search Texas Child Care tool, which the FAQ points to.
Free public pre-K
Texas school districts must offer free full-day pre-K to eligible 4-year-olds. A child must turn 4 by September 1 of the school year (or 3 by September 1, if the district runs a 3-year-old program) and meet at least one condition (TEA, Aug 24, 2026):
- Can’t speak and understand English
- Educationally disadvantaged, meaning eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch
- Homeless
- Child of an active-duty service member, or of one injured or killed on duty
- In foster care now or in the past
- Child of a Star of Texas Award recipient (peace officer, firefighter or first responder)
- Child of a classroom teacher in a district that offers pre-K (new from 2025–26)
Districts are not required to serve 3-year-olds. They may run tuition-based pre-K for children who don’t qualify, with tuition capped at what the district needs to cover the added cost (TEA). If your 4-year-old qualifies, free pre-K can replace most of a year of preschool tuition. That is roughly $204 a week at the statewide center median for a 4-year-old, using our five-day arithmetic.
Out-of-date numbers you’ll still find online
The widely shared Child Care Aware figure for an infant plus a toddler was built on 2024 prices ($21,574). The state’s own survey shows median daily rates up 7.3% just since 2025.
That Child Care Aware annual average is 2024 data (published May 2025). Use the 2026 survey for current daily rates.
Certification jumped from 44.7% of surveyed centers in 2025 to 60.2% in 2026, so finding a rated center near you is easier than older guides suggest.
The eligibility list also covers military, foster and Star of Texas families, and from 2025–26 the children of public school teachers in districts that offer pre-K.
How we check
Every figure links to its source and shows the date it applies to. Market rates here come straight from the state survey PDFs. Where we did arithmetic (five days × a daily rate), we say so. Read the full methodology.