HB117

HB117 creates a temporary governor’s task force to review how Texas agencies manage early-childhood education and care and recommend improvements. It does not itself merge agencies, expand eligibility for child-care aid or guarantee a new child-care place. Signed June 20, 2025, it took effect that day. Final law; official history.

Implementation is conditional on funding. An affected entity must implement a provision only if the Legislature appropriates money specifically for that purpose. Without that appropriation, the entity may—but need not—use other available money. HB117 makes no appropriation, and this explanation does not establish whether a separate appropriation satisfied the condition. Final law, Section 2.

The task force is administratively attached to the Texas Education Agency. Its steering committee includes leaders and designated staff from the education, health and human-services, and workforce agencies. The membership provisions also include public and private early-childhood teachers, Head Start and state-health representatives, two Texas Early Learning Council representatives, and two to five governor-appointed people with relevant knowledge or direct operating experience. The governor appoints its chair. Ordinary advisory-committee rules do not control its size, composition or duration; the exemption is not a blanket exemption from every such rule. Final law, Section 455.003; Government Code Chapter 2110.

Subject to the funding condition, the task force must examine governance and operational problems, review agency functions with a focus on efficiency, consider ways to redesign administration, and develop and recommend standards for high-quality prekindergarten programs. Recommending standards is not the same as immediately replacing existing program rules. The steering committee must align agency goals, measurements and statewide data systems and require periodic progress reports. TEA is to pay research, data-integration and administrative costs from money appropriated or otherwise available for that purpose. Final law, Section 455.004.

The law sets December 1, 2026 as the deadline for policy and budget recommendations to the Legislature. Those recommendations are intended to improve families’ dealings with agencies, operational efficiency, affordable child-care capacity and kindergarten readiness. The task force is abolished and its chapter expires September 1, 2027. These are statutory duties and dates, not a claim that appointments, funding, reports or improvements have already occurred. Final law, Sections 455.005–.006.