Texas child care assistance: 2026–27 income limits, who qualifies and what you’d pay

Estimate your eligibility and share

2026–27 income limits for child care assistance

From October 1, 2026, to September 30, 2027, the limit is 85% of Texas’s state median income for the family’s size, counting income before taxes. It changes every October 1.

Larger families: 9 people $134,518, 10 people $137,381. The last column is 7% of the limit, the largest share a family can be asked to pay. Source: TWC, Income Eligibility Limits and Maximum Parent Share of Cost, Board Contract Year 2027.

Who qualifies

• The child is under 13, or under 19 with a disability, and is a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant. Only the child’s status is checked, not the parents’.
• Income is at or under 85% of the state median income for your family size (table above), and the family’s assets are no more than $1 million (you can certify this yourself).
• Hours: you need care to work, go to school or attend job training an average of at least 25 hours a week, or 50 hours combined in a two-parent family. Each college credit hour counts as 3 hours a week. A teen parent in high school meets the requirement.
• Looking for work? You can get care for an initial 90-day job search if you’re registered on WorkInTexas.com. To keep care for the rest of the year, by the end of the 90 days a single parent needs 25 hours a week of activity including at least 12 of work, and two parents 50 hours including 25 of work.
• College students who only attend school full time can get care for up to 60 months in total. Parents who also work aren’t limited.
• Other ways in: children experiencing homelessness, children of a parent on military deployment (cared for by someone standing in for the parent), and children in protective services can qualify under their own rules.
• You live in Texas and apply in the workforce area where you live.

Source: TWC Child Care Services Guide (Aug. 19, 2026), D-101, D-201, D-202, D-204; TWC child care scholarships.

What you pay

Every family pays a parent share of cost unless it’s exempt. It’s a percentage of your gross income, not of the center’s price: 2% for the lowest incomes (nothing below 1% of the state median income), rising steadily to 7% at about three-quarters of the state median income. Each extra child in care adds a little more, but the total never goes above 7% of income. The scholarship pays the rest of the center’s price, up to your board’s rate.

Monthly parent share for Board Contract Year 2027, from TWC’s formula (percent of income in brackets). Source: TWC parent share of cost sliding fee scale; TWC calculator.

• It can’t go up for 12 months. Eligibility lasts 12 months from the start of care, and your share can’t rise during that time unless you add a child. If your income drops or your family grows, report it and your share goes down.
• A raise doesn’t end care unless your income goes above the 85% limit for good. Increases lasting three months or less don’t count; longer temporary increases are averaged over the year. You must report within 14 days any lasting change that puts your income over the limit.
• Losing a job or hours: a cut in hours doesn’t end care. If work, school or training stops for good, care continues for at least 90 days (or until your 12 months end, if sooner) so you can find something new, and if you start again at any level it continues for the rest of the 12 months.
• Some families pay nothing: those in the Choices program (for families getting TANF) or SNAP Employment and Training, families experiencing homelessness, and children in protective services care.
• Extra charges: a center can’t charge you fees it doesn’t charge other parents. If its price is above the board’s rate, it may bill you the difference only where the local board allows it, and never if your share is zero, you’re exempt, or you’re in your first 90 days of job-search care.
• Hardship: the board can temporarily lower your share for unexpected costs such as medical bills, but can’t waive it entirely.
• Not paying can end care. Not paying your share can end care, though the board must first look at any hardship and can lower it. So can more than 40 unexplained absences in 12 months, including days with no check-in or check-out recorded. After either, you can’t reapply for 60 days.

Source: TWC Child Care Services Guide, A-100, B-601 to B-608, B-709, D-101.b, D-108, D-202, D-802, D-803, E-301, F-204. Board payment rates: TWC WD Letter 16-26 (the higher of the 2026 market rate survey’s 75th percentile or a cost-of-quality baseline; Texas Rising Star 2-, 3- and 4-Star centers get at least 5%, 7% and 9% more). The center gets the lower of the board’s rate and its published price; your share is part of that, and the board pays the rest.

Waitlists and who goes first

Funding covers a set number of children in each workforce area, so in most areas you apply by joining a waitlist. More than 100,000 children were waiting in August 2026, when the Texas Workforce Commission voted to cut about 9.5% of scholarships, about 14,000, over the next 18 months: its statewide target falls from an average of 146,736 children served a day in 2026 to 132,689 in 2027, because care costs more. In most areas, waitlisted children will stay on the list until the area is back under its new target (Texas Tribune, NBC DFW).

• Served first, without waiting: families in Choices (TANF), TANF applicants, SNAP Employment and Training, and families who got Choices child care and left TANF in the past year because of work, higher earnings or reaching TANF’s time limit.
• Next, as money allows, in this order: children in protective services; children of qualified veterans and their spouses; children of foster youth; children experiencing homelessness; children of a parent on military deployment; children of teen parents; children with disabilities; and children of child care workers (25 or more hours a week at a licensed child care center or home; not owners or directors whose child is in their own program).
• Then any priority your local board sets, then everyone else in the order they applied.
• Answer every 90 days. The system asks every 90 days whether you still need care. If you don’t answer after three tries, your child is taken off the list, and that can’t be appealed.

Source: TWC Child Care Services Guide, B-401 to B-403, B-500. Ask your local Workforce Solutions office about the current wait; it’s the only place that knows your status.

How to apply

1. Create a Parent Central account on the state’s Texas Child Care Connection site and fill out the eligibility screener and waitlist application.

2. Wait for an invitation. When your board can enroll your family, a caseworker emails you and posts a notice in Parent Central.

3. Send the full application and documents, usually within two weeks of the invitation: proof of income, of work, school or training hours, of where you live, and of your child’s age and citizenship or immigration status. The state’s documentation list shows what counts.

4. Get a decision within 20 days of the board receiving everything it needs. You get written notice at least 15 days before any denial, cut or end of care, with your right to appeal.

5. Choose a provider within 14 days if you haven’t already, then record at least one check-in or check-out every day in the state’s attendance system (KinderConnect or the KinderSmart app). Missed recordings count as unexplained absences.

Help with your case comes from your local Workforce Solutions office (office locator). Source: TWC application steps for families; Child Care Services Guide, E-101.

Choosing a center that takes scholarships

5,027 of Texas’s 9,611 licensed child care centers (52%) say in their state licensing record that they accept child care subsidies. Pick a county in the estimate above to see the ones near you, each with its inspection record. Licensed and registered child care homes, and relatives listed with the state, can take scholarships too.

• Texas Rising Star: licensed and registered providers must be certified in Texas Rising Star, the state’s quality rating, or be in its entry-level stage. Certified centers are paid more.
• Check the record: every center’s page on Daycare Record shows its citations since 2021 and how it compares with other Texas centers. How to read a Texas inspection record →
• If a center gets in trouble: if state licensing puts a center on probation (a kind of corrective action), the board must tell you in writing within five business days of hearing from the state, and the center can’t start new scholarship children. You can ask to move your child, by phone and without the usual two-week wait, within 14 days. If licensing takes adverse action, the board must contact you within two business days of hearing from the state and move your child to another provider within five. Today 8 accepting centers are on corrective or adverse action, marked in the list.
• Centers can limit how many scholarship children they take, but can’t turn you away because of your income or public assistance.

Source: Texas HHS child care operations data (updated daily); Child Care Services Guide, E-103, E-104, F-101, F-205, F-402, F-404; TWC’s child care search also lists providers.

Common questions

More help paying for care