AUSTIN, Texas —
The Austin City Council on Thursday approved multiple items addressing child care. All of the items aim to help increase parents' access to affordable, high-quality care.
The council approved Item 13, which increases the amount of money for the City's contract with Workforce Solutions to give child care workers wage stipends. This increase will allow the City to serve 200 more employees, giving them up to an additional $2,500 a year.
The council also approved Item 29, which authorizes a contract with Together4Children to provide critical workforce development training for child care workers.
Finally, the council approved Items 32, 33 and 34 to provide funding to support creating pre-K classrooms for 3 year old children across the Austin area – four in Del Valle ISD, three in Austin ISD and one in Leander ISD.
"I can imagine this is a welcome relief to many families who may have a parent that has stayed home to take care of their child because they can't find affordable, quality child care. So having the ability to put their child into pre-K3 is another opportunity to get people back into the workforce," Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) said.
Fuentes said she first proposed that the City invest into Del Valle ISD for programs like these and, when she did, that opened the door for the City to help out with other nearby districts and not just Austin ISD.