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CCS Subsidies and Texas Rising Star Certification

If you’re new to the childcare industry in Texas, you may not know about Child Care Services (CCS) and Texas Rising Star (TRS). These are two names you need to know if you want to increase the number of children your facility can care for and gain valuable benefits.



	Topics Covered:
	Child Care Services Program Why Accept Child Care Services Subsidies (Scholarships)? How to Become a CCS Provider How to Find and Recruit Parents Who Use CCS Scholarships to Pay for Childcare Texas Rising Star Benefits of Texas Rising Star Are You Eligible for Texas Rising Star? How to Apply for TRS Certification

Child Care Services Program

What Is the Child Care Services (CCS) Program?

Not all parents can easily afford childcare. To help, the Texas Workforce Commission created the Child Care Service (CCS) program. This program pays for childcare costs for low-income families, allowing adult caregivers of children to enter the workforce while ensuring that their children have quality care.
As a childcare provider, you have the option to become a CCS provider. If you choose this option, your local Workforce Board, Workforce Solutions on the Texas Gulf Coast region, will reimburse your business for the cost of childcare for CCS children.
If you want to become a CCS provider, your facility must meet higher than minimum standards. To help you attain these higher standards, the CCS program requires you to join Texas Rising Star (TRS).

Why Accept Child Care Services Subsidies (Scholarships)?

Becoming a participant in CCS, and by extension TRS, affords you benefits that you would not otherwise have access to. These perks include:

Ability to receive tuition reimbursement directly from your local Workforce Board, Workforce Solutions on the Gulf Coast.
Diverse sources of income from parents paying full tuition themselves and subsidies.
Get free marketing. Your local Workforce Board lists your childcare business and refers parents in their program to CCS providers like you.
Gain support for improving the quality of your childcare business for sustainability and growth into the future.
Support local low-income families who may want to join the workforce but need assistance in affording childcare to do so.

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How to Become a CCS Provider

To get tuition reimbursement from any child enrolling in childcare with a CCS scholarship, you must first become a CCS provider. Since payments go through your local Workforce Board, you will have to contact them about registering your childcare business for this opportunity.
Before you begin, learn more about how your local Workforce Board handles childcare scholarships. For the Texas Gulf Coast, refer to Workforce Solutions’ financial assistance for childcare. To qualify to become a CCS, you must have:

Be TRS certified by October 2024
A current license or registration for your childcare business.
A satisfactory compliance history for your childcare operation.
No corrective actions on your business.

Once you evaluate whether your business qualifies, you’ll begin the application process with your local Workforce Board. For Workforce Solutions, do the following to complete your application to become an early learning provider, also known as a vendor.

Fill out the correct application based on your type of childcare business.
- Use the following form if you have a registered or licensed childcare business: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/280c63bd8d6b490fb6112e440b12c38c
- Use the following for if you have a listed home-based childcare business: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/482d787c214a467baecc6e0f2809aca9
Complete a Billing Inquiry Form
Fill out a Direct Deposit Authorization Form
Read and be ready to adhere to the guidelines in the Childcare Vendor Handbook
Begin the application process for Texas Rising Star by submitting the Texas Rising Star Interest Form

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How to Find and Recruit Parents Who Use CCS Scholarships to Pay for Childcare

After going through the work of becoming a CCS provider, you need to now market your childcare business to parents who use CCS scholarships as a way to pay for childcare.

Verify Your Listing on Texas Child Care Connection

While being a CCS provider gives you a free listing for families seeking childcare businesses that accept CCS scholarships, you need to make sure your information on the listing is correct.
Ensure that your childcare business appears on the Texas Child Care Connection site listings. This information comes directly from licensing. Use the provider log-in section to access your childcare business’s information and update it as needed. The more information you include about your programs and capacity, the more likely parents can find you in the system.

Use Marketing Strategies to Let Parents Know That You Accept CCS Scholarships

Marketing is vital to attracting parents to your business. You cannot rely only on listings with Texas Child Care Connection to bring you all your business.
The Texas Workforce Commission offers multiple tips for creating a marketing plan for your childcare business. Some of these tips include:

Have current parents rate your childcare business online
Encourage current parents to refer others to your childcare business
Take advantage of local free and low-cost newspapers and newsletters to advertise your childcare business. Sometimes schools will sell ad space in yearbooks or event programs to area businesses. Take advantage of these for a simple way to advertise to parents in your area.
Host open house events for area families to see your facility themselves and ask you questions.
Create a social media presence and respond to online inquiries quickly.
Set up a website and keep it updated.

No matter which marketing tips you use, always include that you accept CCS scholarships to encourage recipients to come to your childcare facility.

Join Texas Rising Star for Another Source of Free Marketing

Texas Rising Star (TRS) offers targeted, free advertising of childcare businesses to the local community, but you cannot use this benefit if you don’t become part of TRS. Plus, to be part of TRS, you must agree to accept CCS scholarships.
Parents who go to the Texas Rising Star site to find participating providers will have two ways to find your business. First, they can view a map showing TRS participants across the state and their star levels. The other way is through a link to search the Texas Child Care Connection site for TRS providers. The search results show parents your TRS rating, availability, programs offered, and more.
Parents can filter search results by whether providers accept financial aid and by TRS star rating, such as all providers in their area with 3-star or higher ratings. So, the higher your star rating, the more likely your childcare business will appear in the results and get business from parents looking for high-quality providers that accept CCS scholarships.
After joining TRS, visit the Texas Child Care Connection site to verify your listing. Don’t forget to mark that you accept financial aid options if you take children with CCS scholarships. This important piece of information will help parents who need this option to find your business.

Tell Parents About CCS Scholarships

Parents cannot use CCS scholarships to help pay for their childcare costs if they don’t know about them. Tell parents of children at your facility about the availability of this financial assistance program. Don’t forget to let them know that you accept children who use it in your program.
When you connect parents with needed resources, such as childcare scholarships, you help them to return to work or save money. You benefit by having children who would have had to drop out for financial reasons continue to be part of your program.

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Texas Rising Star

What Is Texas Rising Star?

The CCS program mandates all CCS providers join Texas Rising Star and reach a two-star level within 24 months. Texas Rising Star (TRS) aims to raise the caliber of childcare facilities that participate in the CCS program. Officials refer to it as a Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) for qualified licensed or registered childcare providers.
TRS scores participating facilities on various factors that impact the quality of childcare. These factors fall into four main categories:

Director and staff training and education, which accounts for 20% of the score
Teacher-child interactions, which makes up 40% of the score
Program administration, which is 20% of the score
Indoor and outdoor environments, accounting for the final 20% of the total score

Based on their scores, facilities receive a score ranging from two to five stars. Childcare businesses that have higher star ratings earn higher reimbursement rates than those that have lower ratings.

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Benefits of Texas Rising Star

Joining Texas Rising Star (TRS) will help your childcare business to thrive, especially if you can attain the highest star ratings. Benefits of being a part of TRS include:

Potential for higher reimbursement rates
Ability to accept children with CCS subsidies for childcare
One-on-one mentoring to help you move from entry-level to two-star or higher rating
Professional development opportunities
Preferred eligibility for grants and other awards
Free promotion of your childcare business to local families through the local Workforce Board
Opportunity to offer children and their parents superior childcare that surpasses minimum standards

One of the biggest benefits of TRS is the ability to increase the amount of reimbursement you receive for children with CCS subsidies. With TRS, you have the potential to earn more from these subsidies when you have higher star levels. To get an idea of how much these enhanced rates can be, use the TRS calculator online.

Are You Eligible for Texas Rising Star?

Your childcare business’s eligibility for TRS depends on your operation’s history and any national accreditations you may hold.

Eligibility for Current Texas Childcare Providers Not Nationally Accredited

Most childcare businesses in Texas do not have national accreditation. To be eligible for TRS, these businesses need to meet the following minimum requirements:

Have a Child Care Services Provider agreement with a Workforce Board to accept CCS subsidies/scholarships.
Hold a permanent license or registration with Child Care Regulations (CCR).
Be licensed by CCR for at least 12 months.
Show a high degree of compliance over the last 12 months with CCR minimum standards for your type of childcare business.
Have fewer than 15 CCR deficiencies that rate high or medium-high.
Not have a Freeze, Notice or Board Corrective Action against your childcare business.
Have no citations for the CCR weapons minimum standard.
Sign up the center director for a Workforce Registry account to track employment history, training, and qualifications, and encourage all staff to do the same.
Meet the Entry Level requirements for TRS:
- Be licensed by CCR
- Not be under Adverse or Corrective Action from CCR
- Have 75 or fewer points in licensing deficiencies in the last 12 months
  - Each high-weight deficiency counts as 5 points.
  - Each medium-weight deficiency contributes 3 points.

Childcare Businesses with Current National Accreditation

Some childcare center chains or facilities that work with have national accreditation. Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) recognizes some of these programs for their high caliber of excellence and allows facilities with such an honor a truncated application process.
Only TWC-recognized national accreditation qualify for the following shorter application process:

Submit Texas Rising Star Certification Request Form
Complete the Texas Rising Star Screening Form based on your facility type
Provide a copy of your current, valid national accreditation
Create a CQIP with a TRS mentor or self-developed

National accreditation recognized by TWC can change, so check the TRS eligibility website to see the latest listing of recognized credentials.

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How to Apply for TRS Certification

To qualify for TRS certification, you must apply to the program and have a facility that adheres to the rigorous standards of the TRS program.

Step 1:

First, you’ll need to fill out your initial certification request based on your childcare program type. TRS only applies to licensed centers, after-school programs, licensed home-based providers, and registered home-based providers. It does not include listed homes. Find your correct application form below:

Step 2:

Read through the provided Facility Assessment Record Forms (FARF) for your type of childcare facility to learn about TRS expectations for your facility.
FARF guidelines cover attributes of your facility and personnel that contribute to superior childcare. Information included in the FARF includes qualifications and training of director and staff and program administration. These categories each account for 20% of the total TRS score.
If you are not certain about which guidelines to read, choose the FARF for all facilities.

Step 3:

Read through the Classroom Assessment Record Forms (CARF) that correspond to the age groups of your classes to understand expectations for your classrooms and teachers.
The CARF covers teacher-student interactions and indoor and outdoor activity environments. Teacher-student interactions is the most important measurement toward your TRS score. It accounts for 40% of the overall rating score. The score for indoor and outdoor environments makes up 20% of your total score.

Step 4:

Either working on your own or with a TRS mentor, create a Continuous Quality Improvement Plan (CQIP). This plan will change over time as your childcare business improves and is one of the basic requirements to participate in TRS.
TRS requires that you create one of these plans at several times:

When joining TRS
After changes in star level, either increasing or decreasing
Before each assessment or monitoring event
After each monitoring or assessment

The CQIP must include the goals you have for your program and specific, actionable steps to reach them. For example, if you want to raise your TRS star level, what do you need to change to meet the next level’s requirements? The answer to that question will help you create an outline of the steps you need to take toward reaching the next star level. TRS provides a desk aid reference to help you create your CQIP if you choose to make one without the help of a TRS mentor.
Your CQIP helps you to focus on specific areas of improvement for your facility. The plan serves as a map to direct your facility toward improved operations. With clear goals and means to achieve them, the CQIP makes it easier to make needed changes to your childcare business.
As you use your CQIP to efficiently accomplish your business’s goals, you and your staff will have greater motivation to continuing toward more improvement.

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