CHILD-CARE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT GRANTS.

(a) The commission may make grants available on a one-time basis to local workforce development boards to enable the boards to design and implement child-care demonstration projects.

(b) A local workforce development board that receives a grant under this section shall use the grant to design and implement a demonstration project that:

(1) expands child-care services in underserved rural local workforce development areas, including:

(A) home-based child-care services;

(B) child-care services at nontraditional times, including services that accommodate the child-care needs of parents who work shift-schedules, evenings, and weekends; or

(C) services to link child-care programs, prekindergarten programs under Subchapter E, Chapter 29, Education Code, and the federal Head Start program;

(2) creates or expands existing pilot programs, based on demonstration models from other states, that provide strategies for successfully recruiting and retaining child-care providers;

(3) creates pilot programs designed to assist low-income, at-risk parents receiving child-care services provided by the commission for extended periods who may benefit from career counseling and employment location services that promote the potential for career advancement; or

(4) develops initiatives that foster school readiness in young children and encourage pre-reading and problem-solving skills in those children.

(c) To be eligible for a grant under this section, a local workforce development board must:

(1) conduct the demonstration project for which the grant is made in a manner that allows replication of the project in whole or part by other local workforce development boards to address similar child-care service needs in underserved local workforce development areas; and

(2) use the grant to develop direct child-care services that, at the conclusion of the demonstration project, may be funded.

(d) Child-care services that may continue to be funded under Subsection (c)(2) at the conclusion of the demonstration project may be funded through existing local workforce development board resources for child-care services or other local resources.