The Texas Workforce Commission is providing extra help to the service industry, which was hit very hard by the pandemic, by providing 12 months of no-cost child care to low-income parents who are employed in the service industry. The new Service Industry Recovery program will use federal COVID relief funds to provide an extra focus on work on workers in the industry.
“TWC’s child care assistance program provides an important subsidy many Texas families use to enter the workforce” said TWC Chairman Bryan Daniel. “This Service Industry Recovery program provides additional funding to ensure service industry employers maintain access to quality child care as they play an important role in the state’s economic success.”
The industries targeted include low-wage workers in the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry, as well as accommodations, food services and retail trade. These industries were some of the greatest impacted by the pandemic.
“For many Texans, lack of access to affordable, quality child care is sometimes the biggest roadblock to getting a job,” said Commissioner Representing Labor Julian Alvarez. “Workers should not have to choose between their families and their jobs. They need and want to do both, and this program helps them do that.”
The $500 million program is funded by a Child Care Development Block Grant through the federal CARES, ARPA, and CRRSAA recovery legislation passed by Congress.
