The average cost of center-based child care for a toddler in 2021 was nearly $9,000 in Texas, which is 9% of the median income of a couple and 28% of a single parent's income, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. (Rawpixel.com/Adobe Stock)

A child advocacy group in Texas is already looking ahead to the 2025 legislative session, after several policy changes it supported this year failed to gain traction.

The group Texans Care for Children believes there were “missed opportunities” to help kids and families thrive, despite the state’s $33 billion budget surplus.

Peter Clark, communications director for the group, pointed out lawmakers did not address the state’s lack of child care or uninsured rates for kids and adults, but did make a major step forward in providing postpartum health coverage for moms.

“Instead of getting kicked off of their health coverage two months after their pregnancy, moms in Texas will now have a full 12 months to keep seeing their doctor, keep taking their medications and keep getting healthy,” Clark pointed out.

To be implemented, the bill requires the state to submit an application to the federal government. While not the highest in the country, the maternal mortality rate in Texas is about 44 deaths per 100,000 births. Black women have had the highest maternal mortality rate of any racial or ethnic group since at least 2014.

Clark described the lack of child care in Texas as a “crisis,” one which is not going away for families, employers or child care providers.

“Parents who are trying to work, kids who need high-quality child care, and all kinds of employers — whether it’s school districts or hospitals, or restaurants — they’re having trouble hiring staff because potential employees cannot find child care,” Clark stressed.

Although Texas has the nation’s highest uninsured rates for kids and adults, Clark said lawmakers did not pass Medicaid expansion. Texans Care for Children also expressed disappointment lawmakers did not address gun violence, despite the 2022 massacre of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde.