Sec. 302.0041.  CHILD-CARE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT GRANTS.  (a)  The commission may make grants available on a one-time basis to local workforce development boards to enable the boards to design and implement child-care demonstration projects.
(b)  A local workforce development board that receives a grant under this section shall use the grant to design and implement a demonstration project that:
(1)  expands child-care services in underserved rural local workforce development areas, including:
(A)  home-based child-care services;
(B)  child-care services at nontraditional times, including services that accommodate the child-care needs of parents who work shift-schedules, evenings, and weekends;  or
(C)  services to link child-care programs, prekindergarten programs under Subchapter E, Chapter 29, Education Code, and the federal Head Start program;
(2)  creates or expands existing pilot programs, based on demonstration models from other states, that provide strategies for successfully recruiting and retaining child-care providers;
(3)  creates pilot programs designed to assist low-income, at-risk parents receiving child-care services provided by the commission for extended periods who may benefit from career counseling and employment location services that promote the potential for career advancement;  or
(4)  develops initiatives that foster school readiness in young children and encourage pre-reading and problem-solving skills in those children.
(c)  To be eligible for a grant under this section, a local workforce development board must:
(1)  conduct the demonstration project for which the grant is made in a manner that allows replication of the project in whole or part by other local workforce development boards to address similar child-care service needs in underserved local workforce development areas;  and
(2)  use the grant to develop direct child-care services that, at the conclusion of the demonstration project, may be funded.
(d)  Child-care services that may continue to be funded under Subsection (c)(2) at the conclusion of the demonstration project may be funded through existing local workforce development board resources for child-care services or other local resources.
Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 495, Sec. 1, eff. June 11, 2001.