April 10, 2026 – Large portions of Texas continue to face a shortage of child care options, with many communities classified as “child care deserts,” leaving working families struggling to find affordable, accessible care. A child care desert is defined as an area where the number of young children with working parents is at least three times greater than the available licensed child care capacity. Recent data shows the problem is widespread. About 40 percent of Texas ZIP codes qualify as child care deserts for low-income families, and hundreds of thousands of children lack access to licensed...