A fight over public pre-K in one of North Texas’ fastest growing school districts is headed to court.
The Texas Licensed Child Care Association is arguing that Northwest ISD expanded its own pre-K program without doing enough to partner with existing providers. The childcare industry group is seeking an injunction to halt further expansion of Northwest ISD’s early childhood centers while the dispute plays out.
The district opened the Dr. David Hicks Early Childhood Center this school year. It is the first of four early childhood centers approved by voters as part of a 2023 bond package.
Northwest ISD’s website says the centers are needed to accommodate rapid growth in its pre-K population.
Tim Kaminski, president of the childcare association, said the district should have looked more closely at whether existing private providers could serve those children before building additional facilities.
“That’s what we’re asking for, is for them to stop the process that they’re in of construction or moving in that direction and start engaging with the providers,” said Kaminski. “The capacity is there, the availability is there.”
Texas' expansion of public school pre-K
In 2019, lawmakers passed House Bill 3 which required school districts to provide full-day pre-K to eligible four-year-olds. Those include children from low-income families, children who are homeless, and children of active-duty military members.
At the same time, state law included provisions to encourage districts to work with qualified private childcare providers.
Those partnerships allow children to stay at a private childcare center but are considered students of the district’s pre-K program. Typically, the private provider receives a share of the public funding tied to those students. In Dallas ISD, for example, partnerships can also include a district-certified teacher working at the private childcare center.
Kaminski said providers supported the partnerships because they worried that moving large numbers of four-year-olds into public schools could defund an already fragile childcare business model.
“Three and four-year-olds basically are where providers make their profit margin,” Kaminski said. “And so, if you take four-year-olds out of the childcare programs into the public system, then it causes the whole system to kind of fall apart for the providers.”
Infant and toddler classrooms are particularly expensive to operate because they require smaller adult to child ratios. Kaminski said losing older children can ultimately make infant and toddler care more expensive.
“Infant and toddler care increases, it almost has to double in the tuition rates to make up for the loss of those four-year-olds,” he said.
Northwest ISD's pre-K program has grown rapidly
According to their website, Northwest ISD says its pre-K enrollment has grown significantly in recent years.
The district reported 565 pre-K students during the 2022-23 school year. By the 2024-25 school year, enrollment had surpassed 1,000.
One of the reasons may be because Northwest ISD offers families the option to pay for public pre-K. For the 2026-27 school year, the district charged $7,000 for pre-K 4 students. The district said eligible children receiving state-funded pre-K are given priority before other students are admitted.
That tuition-based program is another concern for private providers.
Kaminski argues that when public school districts offer pre-K to tuition-paying families, they move beyond serving children covered by the state's free pre-K mandate and begin competing directly with private childcare centers.
“In a lot of cases, they’ll charge it at a reduced rate,” he said. “So then it directly undermines our ability because we can’t lower our rates to try to match up to what they’re doing.”
What the lawsuit argues
The dispute centers on what Northwest ISD was required to do before expanding.
Kaminski said the organization began looking more closely at Northwest ISD after surveying childcare providers about whether districts were expanding pre-K and whether local providers had been approached about partnerships.
“Being left out of the conversation, not being part of the decision-making process continues to be an issue around stabilizing childcare in the state,” Kaminski said.
A spokesperson for Northwest ISD said the district does not comment on pending litigation. A judge is expected to hear arguments in the case on Tuesday in Fort Worth.
Sujata Dand is KERA’s early childhood education reporter. Got a tip? Email her at sdand@kera.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
