Definitions
Child Care Services (CCS): A program funded through the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Child Care. The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is the lead agency for CCDF in Texas. Local Workforce Development Boards administer Child Care Services through the Workforce Solutions offices. For more information about Child Care Services, see the TWC Child Care & Early Learning Program webpage.
CLI Engage: A professional development and quality improvement platform housing early learning resources for schools, educators, and families of children from birth through early elementary. Supported through funding from TEA and TWC, CLI Engage is managed by the Children’s Learning Institute. Most resources, including online training on the state’s early learning guidelines, are available at no cost. For more information, see the CLI Engage webpage.
Early Education: A grade level for students through five years of age who have not been placed in prekindergarten or kindergarten. For more information, see the Student Attendance Accounting Handbook.
Entry Level Designation: Child Care Services programs who are not Texas Rising Star-certified must meet the minimum quality standards to receive Entry Level Designation as part of the certification process.
Education Service Center (ESC): Regional ESCs support local school districts in attaining the missions, goals, and objectives set forth by the Texas Education Agency. For a list of counties included in each ESC, see this ESC map.
Family Engagement Plan: As part of high-quality prekindergarten requirements, all LEAs offering prekindergarten must submit a family engagement plan. The Family Engagement Plan serves as the resource that drives family engagement for the prekindergarten program. Guidance and resources are available to support development of high-quality Family Engagement plans on the TEA Early Childhood High Quality Prekindergarten Family Resources webpage.
Infant and Toddler Early Learning Guidelines: The Texas Infant, Toddler, and Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines (ITELG) were created by the Texas Early Learning Council to help early childhood professionals and parents understand what very young Texans should know and be able to do at different points in their development. The guidelines have developmental information for children from birth to 48 months in four key domains (physical health and motor, social and emotional, language and communication, and cognitive) and caregiver strategies to support optimal development.
The Children’s Learning Institute offers free online training about the ITELG through the CLI Engage platform. For more information, see the ITELG Training webpage.*
Kindergarten (KG): A local education agency is required to offer a kindergarten program to all students who are at least five years of age by September 1 of the current school year. It is optional for students to attend. Children who are five years of age on or before September 1 are not required to enroll in kindergarten.
Kindergarten Readiness: The number of students assessed who met the criteria for a particular assessment on the Commissioner’s List of Approved Assessment Instruments. Kindergarten readiness for each assessment is assessed differently across multiple assessment domains with varying benchmarks/cut-off scores of readiness. A student must pass all required assessment domains to be considered kindergarten ready. Readiness is based on literacy assessment only and does not provide comprehensive information on student readiness across important developmental domains. For information about the Commissioner’s List of Approved Assessment Instruments, see the TEA Early Childhood Education Educator Resources webpage.
Local Workforce Development Area (LWDA): There are 28 LWDAs in Texas, each made up of a set of counties. Each LWDA is managed by a Local Workforce Development Board. A Local Workforce Development Board is a group of community leaders appointed by local elected officials (County Judges and City Mayors) and charged with planning and oversight responsibilities for workforce programs and services in their area.
Prekindergarten (PK3 and PK4): A local education agency is required to offer a prekindergarten program if it identifies 15 or more eligible students who are at least four years of age by September 1 of the current school year. Prekindergarten for three-year-olds is a local education agency decision. Eligibility applies to three-year-olds when a three-year-old program is available. For information about prekindergarten eligibility, see the TEA Early Childhood Education FAQ webpage.
Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines: TEA’s Prekindergarten Guidelines offer educators the information and support to prepare all children for success in kindergarten. The intended use of the guidelines is to provide guidance for planning quality learning experiences for children three to five years of age. For more information, see the TEA Prekindergarten Guidelines webpage.
The Children’s Learning Institute offers free online training about the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. The Children’s Learning Institute and the Texas Education Agency are collaborating to update the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines trainings to align with the 2022 Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. For more information, see the CLI Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines Training webpage.*
Texas Core Competencies: Core competencies refer to specific, basic concepts, skills, and abilities that early childhood professionals should learn, understand and be able to demonstrate. In Texas, Children’s Learning Institute has developed core competencies for the following groups: Practitioners, Administrators, Trainers, and Coaches/Mentors, with the intent of providing guidance to professionals seeking training and for trainers seeking training topics. For more information, see the Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System (TECPDS) Core Competencies webpage.*
Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System (TECPDS): A statewide program designed to meet the professional development needs of those working in the early childhood field. Managed by the Children’s Learning Institute, TECPDS is the state’s workforce registry and offers resources and reports to guide early childhood professionals’ career advancement. Accounts are available at no cost. For more information, visit the TECPDS webpage.
Texas Rising Star: The Texas Rising Star program is a quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) for child care programs participating in the Texas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) Child Care Services program.
Texas Rising Star certification is available to licensed centers and licensed and registered child care home facilities that meet the certification criteria.
The Texas Rising Star program offers three levels of quality certification (Two-Star, Three-Star, and Four-Star) to encourage child care and early learning programs to attain progressively higher levels of quality. These certification levels are tied to graduated enhanced reimbursement rates for children receiving child care scholarships.
For more information about Texas Rising Star, see the TWC Texas Rising Star webpage.
Texas Rising Star-Certified: Texas Rising Star child care programs with a Two-, Three-, or Four-Star certification.
* Trainings completed on CLI Engage can automatically transfer to a user’s TECPDS account. Visit the TECPDS sign-up page to create a free account and contact the TECPDS support team for assistance linking training completion.
