Texas Rising Star: what the stars mean for parents

What Texas Rising Star is

Texas Rising Star is the state’s quality rating for child care programs that take part in the Texas Workforce Commission’s Child Care Services program, which helps families with lower incomes pay for care. Every licensed or registered program that cares for children in that program must take part (relatives who care for a child are exempt): since October 2022, at least at the entry level, with up to 24 months to earn a star (TWC). Licensed centers, licensed school-age programs and licensed and registered child care homes can be certified 2-Star, 3-Star or 4-Star, based on an on-site assessment against standards that go beyond the state’s minimum licensing rules.

Two things follow for parents. A star level tells you a program was assessed and how it scored. But a center without stars isn’t necessarily worse: only programs with a Child Care Services agreement can be certified, so centers that don’t take subsidized children can’t have stars at all. Texas Rising Star is run by the Texas Workforce Commission; licensing and inspections are a separate job, done by Texas Health and Human Services, and they apply to every licensed center.

What the 2-, 3- and 4-Star levels mean

Extra subsidy pay is the minimum by which local workforce boards must set their payment rates for certified programs above their maximum rate for programs without stars (which is based on the 75th percentile of local prices in the state’s market rate survey). A program is never paid more than its own published price. Sources: Texas Rising Star certification levels; 40 TAC §809.20; §809.131.

A program first has to meet a set of required, pass-or-fail measures. Assessors then score the rest from 0 to 3 points, average them within each of four categories, and weight the categories into an overall average: 2.4 or more is 4-Star, 1.80 to 2.39 is 3-Star and anything lower is 2-Star.

What assessors look at

• Teacher-child interactions (40% of the score). The biggest category. An assessor watches every classroom, for one to one-and-a-half hours each at the first assessment, and scores how warm and responsive teachers are, how they talk with children and build language, play-based learning, how they help children manage feelings and behavior, and how they teach. In centers it also scores group sizes and child-to-teacher ratios (below). A program can use CLASS observation scores from the past 12 months for every classroom, by a certified evaluator who isn’t its mentor, in place of this category.
• Director and staff qualifications and training (20%). Education, experience and yearly training for the director and teachers.
• Program administration (20%). Family education and involvement, and how the program is managed, including staff supports.
• Indoor and outdoor learning environments (20%). Equipment, materials and how classrooms and playgrounds are set up.

Accredited programs get a shortcut. A program accredited by a recognized body, such as NAEYC, NAFCC, NECPA, NAC, COA, Cognia, ACSI, APPLE, AMS, AMI/USA or MSA, or a Head Start or Early Head Start program with wraparound services, is assessed only on interactions and environments; it gets 3 points automatically for the other two categories. Child care run by the U.S. Department of Defense is certified 4-Star automatically.

Source: Texas Rising Star Certification Guidelines (TWC, February 2026).

Ratios and group sizes that earn top points

For center classrooms, Texas Rising Star scores group size and the number of children per teacher. To earn the full 3 points, a room usually has to be much smaller than the state minimum allows (for babies under a year, the ratio is the same as the state’s, but the group must be smaller). These are two scored measures among many, not requirements: a 4-Star center doesn’t need top points on every measure, so ask what your child’s room actually runs.

Sources: Texas Rising Star classroom assessment form (version 01.01.2026; the infant form has the same scores), measures P-GSSR-01 and P-GSSR-02; 26 Texas Administrative Code §746.1601 and §746.1609 for centers licensed for 13 or more children. Full state chart: Texas daycare ratios.

What a star doesn’t tell you

• It may rest on an assessment up to three years old. Each program is fully reassessed at least every three years. In between, it gets two unannounced monitoring visits; if one falls short, the program keeps its level for six months while it works on an improvement agreement, then is reassessed, which can lower or raise its level. Programs can also ask to be re-rated, and certain citations can cost a star (below).
• It isn’t an inspection. State licensing inspectors still visit and cite rule violations, and those records are separate. Only some citations change a star level (next section).
• It only covers programs in the subsidy program. Only programs with a Child Care Services agreement can be certified, so a center that doesn’t take subsidized children can’t have stars, however good it is. “No stars” often just means “not in the program.”
• It says nothing about price, hours or openings. Ask the program.
• 4-Star isn’t perfect. It starts at 80% of the possible points, so look at your child’s classroom, not just the certificate.

Source: Texas Rising Star Certification Guidelines.

How citations can cost a center its stars

Texas Rising Star reviews each certified program’s state licensing record for the most recent six months, and the consequences change on November 1, 2026. For a licensed center, these are the citations that matter:

Through October 31, 2026. Each citation under one of the first four rules drops a center one star level for six months (a 2-Star center is suspended instead). A citation under one of the others, or 26 to 40 points of serious citations (5 for each high-risk citation, 3 for each medium-high), puts it on six-month probation; another such citation during probation costs a star and starts a second probation, and more after that means suspension. A firearms citation, state or workforce board corrective action, or more than 40 points means suspension.

From November 1, 2026. Under rules TWC adopted in September 2026, the automatic star drop ends: those four background-check and abuse citations lead to probation, like the rest of the list, and point limits count only high-risk citations. Another listed citation during probation still costs a star (a 2-Star program is suspended). A program is suspended for state corrective or adverse action, workforce board corrective action, citations under the weapons rules, a third probation in a row, more than four probations in one three-year certification, or falling below 2-Star at its latest assessment. TWC hasn’t yet published the updated guidelines with the exact list of rules and point limits.

To be assessed for a first star, a program needs at least 12 months of licensing history and a clean enough recent record: under the current guidelines, none of the four star-drop citations in the last six months and no more than 25 points of serious citations.

What the records show: in the six months to Oct 15, 2026, 212 licensed Texas centers were cited under one of the four background-check and abuse rules, most of them for background checks, and 1,036 under one of the other listed rules. Every citation on a Daycare Record center page shows its rule number, so you can check a starred center’s recent record against this list yourself.

Sources: Texas Rising Star Certification Guidelines (February 2026), Tables 4.1 and 4.2; TWC, adopted amendments to 40 TAC Chapter 809 (Subchapter G effective November 1, 2026); 40 TAC §809.131; Texas Health and Human Services citation records.

How starred centers’ inspection records compare

We matched TWC’s daily subsidy provider file, which lists each program’s Texas Rising Star level, to the licensed centers open as of Oct 15, 2026 and compared their state inspection records over the past 12 months.

The gap runs the way you’d hope: 4-Star centers had far fewer high-risk citations per inspection than 2-Star centers. That’s partly by design, since recent serious citations can cost a program a star or get it suspended. Centers with no level, most of which aren’t in the subsidy program and can’t be rated, had 8.0 high-risk citations per 100 inspections, about as few as 4-Star centers (7.9): a missing star isn’t a warning sign by itself. The record that matters is the center’s own.

High-risk citations found at inspections (complaint investigations excluded), divided by inspections, from Oct 15, 2025 to Oct 15, 2026. The last column also counts high-risk citations from complaint investigations, self-reported incidents and other state visits. Levels from TWC’s Statewide Child Care Subsidy Providers file (data.texas.gov, updated daily; as of Oct 16, 2026), matched by state operation number; 574 centers listed under codes TWC doesn’t define (NA, SUSA, SUSI) are left out. This compares groups, not individual centers.

Where the starred centers are

Licensed centers with a current star level, in the counties with the most. Each Texas center’s page on Daycare Record shows its level and the dates TWC lists for it.

Levels from TWC as of Oct 16, 2026; licensed centers from Texas licensing records as of Oct 15, 2026. Child care homes can be certified too: 524 licensed homes and 247 registered homes hold a star level.

How to check a daycare’s current level

1. Search TWC’s Child Care Availability Portal and use its Texas Rising Star filter to see programs at each star level near you (how TWC suggests using it).
2. Look up the center on Daycare Record to see its inspection record next to the level TWC lists for it.
3. Ask the director the questions below, and visit your child’s classroom.

Questions to ask

1. What’s your current Texas Rising Star level, and when were you certified or last reassessed?
2. When was your last monitoring visit, and what came out of it?
3. Has your level dropped, or have you been on probation or suspension, in the past year?
4. How many children and teachers are in my child’s room, and what’s the largest the group gets?
5. How long have my child’s teachers worked here, and what training do they get each year?
6. Are you accredited, and by whom?
7. Do you take Child Care Services scholarships, and do you have openings for them?

Stars, subsidies and free pre-K

• Child Care Services scholarships. If you qualify, you choose the provider. Your assessed parent share is set by your family’s income and size, not the star level. Boards pay certified providers more, up to the provider’s own price, and some boards let a provider charge you the difference if its price is higher than what the board pays, so ask what you’d owe in total. See who qualifies for child care assistance in Texas.
• Free pre-K at a daycare. School districts that run pre-K for 4-year-olds with child care providers partner with licensed programs in good standing that are Texas Rising Star 3- or 4-Star, nationally accredited, Head Start or Texas School Ready, so an eligible child may get free pre-K plus before- and after-school care at the same place. See daycare vs preschool vs pre-K.

Common questions

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