Mother’s Day Out in Texas

What a Mother’s Day Out is

A Mother’s Day Out (MDO), also called Parents’ Day Out, Kids’ Day Out or Morning Out, is part-time care for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, usually a few hours in the morning and early afternoon; children usually attend two or three days a week, often at a church. Parents use it for a regular break, part-time work or as a first step before preschool. Many programs follow the school calendar and offer classes on different days, such as Tuesday and Thursday or Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

When a Mother’s Day Out needs a license in Texas

Texas law defines a day-care center as a place, other than the operator’s home, that cares for 7 or more children under 14 for less than 24 hours a day, but at least two hours a day, three or more days a week (Human Resources Code §42.002(7)). A day-care center needs a license from Texas Health and Human Services, and licensed centers are inspected and must follow the state’s minimum standards.

• Open three or more days a week, two or more hours a day, with 7 or more children: it must be licensed, unless an exemption applies. The law counts the days the program operates, not the days your child attends, so an MDO that runs both Tuesday-Thursday and Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes is open five days a week.
• The whole program open one or two days a week, or for less than two hours a day: it isn’t a day-care center under the law, so Texas doesn’t license or routinely inspect it.
• Exemptions. Care for short periods while parents are on or near the premises, at church services or shopping, is exempt if the program doesn’t advertise itself as a child-care facility or day-care center and tells parents it isn’t licensed; the state caps it at 4½ hours a day and 12 hours a week, so it doesn’t cover a drop-off MDO where parents leave. Also exempt: accredited schools’ programs for children 3 and older, a religious school’s program with no more than two hours of custodial care a day, and programs that run for less than three weeks in a row and fewer than 40 days a year, such as vacation Bible school (Human Resources Code §42.041(b); Child Care Regulation Handbook §2330). Programs can ask the state to decide whether they’re exempt (Texas HHS).

What the records show: of the 9,611 licensed centers in Texas, 0 list fewer than three operating days a week; 59 list exactly three and 212 list four. Among licensed child care programs, 312 post daily hours shorter than six, and 152 of those are open four days a week or fewer. So if the whole program runs only one or two days a week, it almost certainly isn’t licensed: ask how it handles the things a license would cover. A two-day class can still be part of a licensed program that runs three or more days, so look it up.

Operating days and hours are what each center reports to the state, in Texas licensing records as of Oct 15, 2026.

If the program isn’t licensed

An unlicensed MDO isn’t breaking the law if it stays under the thresholds or qualifies for an exemption, and many are run carefully by churches and community groups. But no state child care inspector checks it, and none of the state’s minimum standards apply: staff-to-child ratios and group sizes, background checks, safe sleep for babies, medication, emergency plans, or training. You are the inspector.

• Ask which rules it follows anyway, and whether it uses the state’s ratios as a guide (Texas ratios by age).
• Ask who is background-checked, including volunteers, and how.
• Visit during a class, not only at an open house.
• If you suspect abuse or neglect at any program, licensed or not, call the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400 (DFPS); call 911 in an emergency. If someone seems to be providing child care without a required permit, you can report that through the hotline too (Texas Workforce Commission). See how to report a daycare.

What part-day care costs

No one surveys MDO tuition. Texas’s market rate survey leaves out unlicensed programs and programs that offer only part-day care with no after-school care, which describes most MDOs. The closest benchmark is what licensed centers that also offer full-day or after-school care charge for a part-day spot, meaning less than six hours a day (Texas Workforce Commission). Ask local MDOs for their actual tuition.

2026 Texas Child Care Market Rate Survey, Supplemental Report, statewide medians. Full-day prices by area.

At that median part-day price, two days a week for a 2-year-old would come to about $331 a month. Ask about registration and supply fees, whether you pay for holidays and closed weeks, and whether the program closes for the summer. If you (and your spouse, if married) pay for an MDO so you can work or look for work, it can count for a dependent care FSA or the child and dependent care credit (IRS Publication 503).

Questions to ask a Mother’s Day Out

1. Are you licensed? If not, which exemption applies, and do you meet two or fewer days a week?
2. How many children and adults are in my child’s room?
3. Who has had a background check: teachers, substitutes and volunteers?
4. Where and how do babies nap? (Babies under 12 months should sleep on their backs in a crib or play yard with only a fitted sheet.)
5. What’s your sick-child policy, and how do you handle medication and allergies?
6. What’s the emergency plan, and how do you sign children in and out?
7. Is the program open in the summer, and do you charge for weeks you’re closed?
8. Do children need to be potty trained? What should I pack?
9. Can I visit during the day without calling ahead?

More in how to choose a daycare, plus what to pack and safe sleep at daycare.

Licensed Mother’s Day Out programs in Texas

These 38 licensed Texas programs have “Day Out”, “Morning Out”, “Mother’s Day” or MDO in their names. 5 of them had a high-risk citation in the past 12 months (statewide, 29% of licensed centers did). Many other licensed centers and church preschools run part-day programs under other names; search for one below. Unlicensed MDOs don’t appear in state records, and some licensed ones are listed under the church’s name.

Record: how each center’s citations per inspection compare with other licensed Texas centers; see how scores work. Texas licensing records as of Oct 15, 2026.

Common questions

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