Evaluation of Harris County's Early REACH Contracted Slots Child Care Program (2024-2026)

REPORTS

Second Annual Report (June 2026) and Executive Summary for the Second Report

First Annual Report (September 2025) and Executive Summary for the First Report

Executive Summary—Second Annual Report (June 2026)

This is the second of four reports in the ongoing evaluation by the UH IRWGS of the Harris County Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity’s Early REACH Program (ER). ER was initiated as a pilot, and funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, sufficient to cover the cost of 800-to-1,000 contracted slots in high-quality child care deserts from June 2023 through September 2026. The program aims to begin to address the national shortage of affordable child care by providing free, high-quality care for children whose families face economic hardship and/or live in areas of Harris County with a high Social Vulnerability Index.

Of the roughly 332,000 children 4 and under in Harris County, at least 152,400 would be eligible for a contracted slot under ER’s “85% of State Median Income” criterion. Even with multiple sources of federal child care funding, in Harris County there is a federally funded slot available for fewer than 1 in every 5 eligible children (17.9%).

Key Insights

1. Early REACH had positive effects on primary caregiver employment, including an overall 57% increase in transition to employment over non-Early REACH primary caregivers and an 11% increase in the job-retention rate.
2. The transition into employment for those in the program was 18.6 percentage points higher in the first year (relative to non-participants), and 27.7 percentage points higher for those in the program 12-24 months, indicating a positive effect of time-in-program.
3. Though there is an Early REACH center within 2.65 miles on average from PCs’ homes, Early REACH families travel an average of 6.73 miles to their enrolled Early REACH provider. This likely reflects a combination of caregiver preferences, the fact that in some parts of Harris County centers were far spread, and the limited availability of ER slots.
4. While much of the ER-funded capacity substituted for pre-existing slots rather than opening new ones, enrollment grew 25% above the 2022–23 baseline among the ER center subsample, compared with 2.7% growth among non-ER centers over the same period.
5. Over its time in operation, the Early REACH program has reduced average center vacancy rates and cost paid per student, and increased the total number of slots filled/children enrolled.
6. Staffing levels and staff wages continued higher at ER centers than at non-ER centers and tuition levels at both rose at similar rates.

Principal Findings of This Report

Effects for Parents and Families

Effects on Primary Caregiver (PC) Employment

• Early REACH (ER) again showed a positive effect on employment for PCs: We find that ER increased the probability of transitioning from unemployment into employment by 24.0 percentage points relative to comparable PCs who never enrolled in ER— a 57.5% increase in the unemployment-to-employment transition for ER compared to non-ER PCs.
• Analyzing job retention, we document that for PCs already employed upon entering the ER program, ER increased the probability of remaining employed by 8.1 percentage points. This is an 11% increase for ER compared to non-ER PCs.
• Overall, ER participation increased PC employment by an estimated 14.8 percentage points relative to the change observed among comparable non-ER PCs, whose employment declined over the same period.
• Additionally, we examined how increased length of time-in-program affects employment:
  • During the first 12 months after enrollment, ER increased the probability of transitioning into employment by 18.6 percentage points. After families had been enrolled for 12 to 24 months, the estimated effect rose to 27.7 percentage points. The effect over two years was 49% higher than that over one year.
  • Likewise, the probability of remaining employed increased over time: a 3.5 percentage points greater increase in the first year and an 8.5 percentage points greater increase in the second year and beyond.
  • Taken together, overall employment also increased with duration in ER: During the first 12 months after enrollment, ER increased overall primary caregiver employment by 8.6 percentage points (both those employed and unemployed at entry). After families had been enrolled for 12 to 24 months, the estimated effect rose to 16.7 percentage points.
  • These findings indicate that longer duration in ER positively affects PCs’ work status, in both transitioning into and retaining employment.

Distance Travelled for Child Care

• We provide an overview of the distance from all ER family homes to all child care centers, Texas Rising Star centers, and ER centers as well as the distances travelled to access care, using ER family address data and Texas child care operations (Health and Human Services) data.
• While on average there is an ER center within 2.65 miles of each ER home, ER families travel an average of 6.73 miles to their enrolled ER provider.
  • Primary caregivers may choose centers based on proximity to home or to workplace, as well as other center characteristics. Their choices are also limited by where ER slots are open at their time of enrollment—an effect magnified by ER’s pilot status.

Effects for Child Care Centers

Total Available Slots

• We explored how many child care slots were added to the total slot offerings per center among a subset of 17 ER centers for whom the relevant data was available. We find that total slots increased over time (including both those funded by ER and those at the same centers that were not ER-funded). Total enrollment at the subsample of ER centers grew about 25% above their 2022–23 baseline, versus about 2.7% at non-ER centers.

Staffing, Wages, and Tuition

• The Round 2 results again show that ER centers had higher staffing levels than non-ER centers in 2025–26.
• Results also suggest continued adherence to the ER wage policy and sustained wage differences between ER and non-ER centers.
• In 2025–26, tuition for non-ER families in ER and non-ER centers continued to increase over time, at similar levels.

Effects over Time on Average ER Program Vacancy Rates, Cost per Slot, and Total Slots Filled per Month

• The pattern of higher vacancies when centers enter the program and low vacancies once a steady state of enrollments has been achieved, documented in Annual Report 1 (AR1), continued in the recent data (through April 2026), with an average 10.1% of slots per month vacant overall, and an average 4.4% slot vacancy excluding the ramp-up period (the first five months of the ER program) – an efficient pattern.
• Likewise, ER’s average monthly tuition cost per child served was roughly $1,900 over the entire period, but declined to $1,500 per child by April 2026, as a steady state was achieved. As with any program that begins fully vacant and then fills, the longer the program is in operation, the lower the overall cost per child served.
• Using Baker Ripley’s ER payment data, we document that the monthly average number of total slots filled was 762 (820 excluding the ramp-up period).

Executive Summary—First Annual Report (Sept. 2025)

This is the first of four reports in the ongoing evaluation by the UH IRWGS of the Harris County Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity’s Early REACH Program (ER). ER was initiated as a pilot, and funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, sufficient to cover the cost of 800-to-1,000 contracted slots in high-quality child care deserts from June 2023 through September 2026. The program aims to provide free, high-quality care for children whose families face economic hardship and/or live in areas of Harris County with a high Social Vulnerability Index.

The national affordable child care shortage is also an issue in Harris County. Of the roughly 322,000 children 4 and under in the county, at least 166,092 would be eligible for a contracted slot under ER’s “85% of State Median Income” criterion. Even with multiple sources of federal child care funding, in Harris County there is a federally funded slot available for fewer than 1 in every 5 eligible children (18%).

Accomplishments to date

• Developed prioritization mechanism for allocation of children to
• Developed, fielded, and analyzed two large-scale surveys, of caregivers and child care centers, including both participant and comparison groups. Five survey rounds will be fielded.

First round of Family Surveys – 941 respondents

Topics include labor-force, school, health, child wellbeing, income data, etc.

First round of Center Surveys – 137 respondents

Topics include services, tuition/fees, expenditures, staff demographics, positions filled, salaries, attrition, children served, ER slots filled, demographic data, etc.

• Collected and analyzed administrative and program data, in addition to survey

Initial findings

• Our invoicing data analysis finds that the vacancy fill rate was largely consistent across centers, and that, on average, centers took approximately 5 months to achieve a 97% steady state filled rate, an efficient outcome.

Stopping and re-starting the program would be costly, since it would involve repeating the ramp-up period, with its built-in high vacancy costs.

• Among caregivers not working when they applied to ER between December 2023 and May 2025, those awarded ER slots were 1 percentage points more likely to begin working relative to those who were not awarded slots (44.7% vs. 32.6%). Thus caregivers/parents with ER were 37% more likely to become employed than caregivers/parents without ER.

Many of these caregivers’ children were admitted recently, and since labor market entry takes time, this may be an underestimate of the ultimate effects on employment.

• Wages for staff rose among both designated ER staff for whom a $15/hour minimum was required and non-ER staff

in the same centers. (The minimum is higher than market wage to attract skilled workers and increase retention.)

This suggests that ER funding had spillover effects, lifting compensation across all ER center staff.

• Staffing levels increased significantly more at ER centers compared to non-ER centers, at all age
• ER centers consistently reported lower tuition levels than non-ER centers (another apparent spillover effect), although the differences were not statistically significant.

The gap between the rapid ramp up of the ER program and the start of the evaluation has presented some challenges, which we have worked assiduously to resolve. In subsequent reports, we will extend and expand these analyses to examine ER program-specific outcomes in the context of broader family, community, labor-force, and market impacts. The results presented are preliminary; more in-depth and comprehensive analyses will be conducted in the next phases of the study.

Among the data and issues to be examined in future reports

For centers:

• the numbers of slots added across centers (net enrollment change in ER non-ER centers)
• total funds expended on vacant seats to date
• any observable spillover effects of ER on centers in the vicinity of ER centers
• the impact of the contracted slot model on center stability
• time factors involved in quality growth and their impact on center expansion
• changes to the continuity and quality of staff recruited under this system relative to what was in place previously and what is in place in similar but non-participating centers
• analysis of outreach effects

For families:

• the continued transitions into and out of employment for those who are and are not offered slots,
• descriptions of different families who would be offered slots under different allocation mechanisms
• the child care arrangements of applicants prior to being offered a slot
• other measures of family well-being that may be altered by having free high-quality child

We will also explore administrative and structural effectiveness and learning over the course of the ER pilot.