§ Creates the Texas Child Care Fund (fund) to be administered by the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). Requires the fund to be used to maximize matching federal funds for child care and provides that the fund consists of state appropriations and money donated for child care services by local governments, businesses, nonprofit organizations, or other persons.

§ Requires TWC or a local workforce development board that accepts child-care funds from TWC to contract with government organizations, public nonprofit agencies, or certain community-based organizations to administer the subsidized child-care program through the existing uniform statewide brokered system.

§ Requires the Comptroller of Public Accounts, assisted by an interagency work group, to develop and periodically update a statewide guide for child care designed to assist consumers in making informed choices, and provide useful information to service providers.

§ Requires the TWC to establish four pilot programs in which the workforce development division shall certify certain day-care training facilities to train recipients of public assistance in the early childhood care professions.

§ Requires the training centers to offer training and certification for recipients of public assistance in basic skills, child-care, child-care vendor entrepreneurial training, and early childhood education.

§ Requires TWC, in awarding a contract to a child-care center to offer training, to base its decision on the level of staff training and the history of the facility in delivering high-quality services.

§ Authorizes TWC to also provide funding for the trainee to complete child-care certification; participate in ongoing interactive training; and establish a child-care business.

§ Requires the training facility to establish a mentor relationship with the trainee, and provide the trainee with discounted child-care services. Prohibits the facility from counting the trainee in its staff-child ratio.

§ Clarifies procedures under which the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DPRS) licenses, certifies, and registers various kinds of child care services, including registered family homes, child care facilities, and residential institutions. Includes registered family homes as entities to be regulated by DPRS.

Listed and Registered Homes

§ Defines "children who are related to the caregiver" to include children, grandchildren, siblings, great-grandchildren, nieces, or nephews of the caregiver, and excludes them from regulation requirements.

§ Establishes a new category called listed homes, and provides for the regulation of these homes by DPRS.

§ Requires DPRS to:

§ promulgate minimum standards for registered family homes;

§ promulgate standards that apply to registered child-care facilities that will prevent breakdown of foster care and adoptive placement;

§ prescribe qualifications for a person who operates a regulated facility;

§ make rules for the immunization of children in regulated child care services; and

§ require children to be tested for and immunized against communicable diseases as recommended by TDH.

§ Makes it a Class B misdemeanor to operate a regulated family home without listing or registering with DPRS.

Licensed Child Care Facilities

§ Requires DPRS to conduct a background and criminal history check on:

§ a person who will be a director, owner, operator, employee, or regular visitor of a child care facility; and

§ a person listing or registering a family home, as well as the home's employees and regular visitors.

§ Expands actions DPRS is able to take in regulating child care services to include suspending and refusing to deny a facility's license or a family home's registration.

§ Provides that a provisional license may be renewed for an additional six months, rather than being nonrenewable.

§ Provides that registration is not required of a Texas Juvenile Probation Commission facility, nor of a Texas Youth Commission facility.

§ Deletes a requirement that registration fees collected under this chapter be deposited to the credit of the child care training fund.

§ Creates "listed family homes" as a new category of child care providers required to be regulated by DPRS.

§ Requires DPRS to investigate a listed family home when DPRS receives a complaint of abuse or neglect of a child.

§ Authorizes DPRS to inspect registered family homes as necessary.

§ Prohibits a family home from placing a public advertisement that uses the title "registered family home" or "listed family home," or any variation of the phrase, unless the home is registered or listed with DPRS.

§ Requires DPRS to charge each listed or registered family home an annual fee to cover a part of DPRS' cost in regulating family homes.

§ Requires DPRS to conduct background and criminal history checks on persons closely associated with the operation of a listed or registered family home at the time the family home originally is listed or registered.

§ Establishes provisions for:

§ the denial, suspension, refusal to renew, or revocation of a family home's listing or registration; and

§ the emergency suspension and closure of a listed or registered family home.

§ Requires the DPRS to coordinate monitoring inspections of licensed day-care centers, licensed group day-care homes, and registered family homes to eliminate redundant inspections.

§ Requires DPRS to form a task force to develop an inspection protocol that will coordinate inspection by various state agencies.

§ Requires DPRS, immediately after completing a monitoring inspection, to review the results of the monitoring inspection with a representative of the facility and give the facility an opportunity to respond to the inspection results.

§ Requires the DPRS to develop rules prescribing minimum training standards for an employee of a regulated child-care facility.

§ Prohibits DPRS from requiring an employee to repeat required training if the employee has completed the training within the time prescribed by DPRS rule.

§ Requires DPRS' local offices to make available at the local office locations a copy of the rules regarding minimum training standards, information enabling the owner or operator of a regulated facility to apply for training funds from other agencies to lower facility costs, and any other materials DPRS may develop to assist the owner or operator or other entity in providing the training.