2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB599
SB599 prevents local governments from imposing health-and-safety standards on covered home child-care operations that are stricter than state law or Health and Human Services Commission rules.
Official caption: Relating to the authority of a political subdivision to regulate a licensed, registered, or listed group day-care home or family home.
Official report lists Senate author(s): West. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- SB599 prevents local governments from imposing health-and-safety standards on covered home child-care operations that are stricter than state law or Health and Human Services Commission rules.
- These are home-care categories, not every child-care facility.
- The governor signed the bill May 15, 2025, and it took effect immediately after receiving the required votes.
What does it do?
SB599 prevents local governments from imposing health-and-safety standards on covered home child-care operations that are stricter than state law or Health and Human Services Commission rules. The restriction applies to a group day-care home or family home licensed, registered or listed under Human Resources Code Chapter 42. It bars both adopting and enforcing a conflicting local ordinance, order or other measure. Final law, Section 1.
These are home-care categories, not every child-care facility. The referenced statute distinguishes a group day-care home at the operator’s residence from a day-care center at another location, and separately defines family homes. SB599 does not repeal state licensing or safety standards, and its text does not declare every local rule or private property restriction invalid. Whether a particular local measure imposes a higher health-and-safety standard requires comparing that measure with the applicable state standard. Statutory definitions, subdivisions (7)–(9); Scope of the local restriction.
The governor signed the bill May 15, 2025, and it took effect immediately after receiving the required votes. It has no county population limit or separate delayed implementation date. Official history; Section 2 and vote certifications.
What changed along the way?
The introduced text referred to a “licensed child-care home” and a family home registered or listed under Chapter 42. The Senate committee substitute changed the operative wording to a “group day-care home or family home licensed, registered, or listed” under that chapter and aligned the heading and caption. That precise home-based scope—not the introduced caption’s broader reference to a child-care facility—is the enacted rule. Introduced text; Committee substitute.
The committee substitute, engrossed, House committee and enrolled operative texts match. The House reported it without amendments; the official amendment index lists none. No floor amendment or conference rewrite changed the final restriction. All five versions; Amendment index; Enrolled text.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Covered providers may face fewer overlapping or stricter local requirements and more predictable compliance costs. That could support home-care availability, but the bill does not guarantee lower tuition, more spaces or improved safety. Local governments lose the ability to demand higher health-and-safety standards for these operations, while the state standards remain the benchmark. Enacted restriction.
The March 20 Senate-substitute fiscal note, the latest posted note, anticipates no state fiscal impact and no significant local-government fiscal impact. The introduced note reached the same fiscal conclusion. Neither quantifies provider savings, family prices or safety outcomes. The law does not appropriate money or create a child-care subsidy. Latest fiscal note; Introduced fiscal note.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
