84R5772 YDB-D
By: Farrar H.B. No. 1521
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to state agency authority to establish child-care subsidy
programs.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter E, Chapter 659, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 659.062 to read as follows:
Sec. 659.062. CHILD-CARE SUBSIDY PROGRAM. (a) A state
agency using money appropriated to the agency by this state may
establish a child-care subsidy program to assist the agency's
low-income employees with their child-care costs. The assistance
may be provided for full-time and part-time child care,
before-school and after-school programs, and daytime summer
programs.
(b) Two or more state agencies in a multitenant building may
establish a child-care subsidy program and share the program costs
to provide employees of the agencies with child-care services
through a child-care facility located in the building.
(c) Except as prohibited under Subsection (d), a state
agency may impose restrictions on the use of appropriated money for
its child-care subsidy program based on employees' needs, the
agency's staffing requirements, the local availability of child
care, and other factors determined by the agency, including
eligibility restrictions based on an employee's:
(1) full-time or part-time employment status;
(2) use of an on-site child-care facility;
(3) use of full-time child care; or
(4) use of child care in limited locations.
(d) A state agency that establishes a child-care subsidy
program under this section may not limit the payment of subsidies to
only child-care facilities licensed by this state under Chapter 42,
Human Resources Code.
(e) Subject to any restriction established under Subsection
(c), an employee who qualifies as a low-income employee under a
state agency's child-care subsidy program is eligible to receive a
child-care subsidy for the care of each child under age 13 or, for a
child with a disability, under age 18.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.