Tarrant County College will offer its first-ever bachelor’s degree program in fall 2026 to help meet the need for early childhood educators in North Texas.
A Bachelor of Applied Science in early childhood education and teaching was approved Thursday by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which oversees public colleges and universities in Texas.
The program aims to meet a workforce need in Dallas-Fort Worth. By 2028, job openings for early childhood educators are anticipated to increase by 17%, and jobs for certified elementary school teachers are expected to grow by 11%, said Daniel Lufkin, president of TCC South Campus, at the coordinating board meeting.
“This will prioritize the needs of young children and the development of early childhood professionals in Tarrant County,” he said.
Texas community colleges can offer up to five bachelor’s degrees in applied science, applied technology or nursing to meet workforce needs due to two state laws passed in the last decade.
“We value our strong partnerships with area universities and see this effort as a way to
complement — not compete with — existing programs,” TCC Chancellor Elva LeBlanc said in a statement emailed to the Fort Worth Report. “This approach helps ensure North Texas has the early childhood educators it needs while giving students more accessible options to complete their degrees.”
Not enough students are graduating from early childhood education programs in Texas to keep up with the number of job openings, said Elizabeth Mayer, the coordinating board’s assistant commissioner for academic and health affairs, in an overview of the new degree program she gave at the meeting.
An October study showed that fully staffed centers could serve 74% of Tarrant County’s children — from newborns to age 5 — with working parents.
As child care centers face a need for educators, families in need of such care struggle with high costs. Inaccessible child care especially impacts mothers, who are more likely than fathers to quit work and stay home with their children.
Early childhood education also sets children up for success in school, something particularly important as Fort Worth students struggle to read.
The degree program will integrate classroom learning with real world experience in the field, LeBlanc said. The College plans to enroll about 50 to 60 students in the first cohort at the South Campus, she added.
TCC will recruit students from its Associate of Arts in Teaching program as well as current professionals who work in the field but do not have the bachelor’s degree required to become full teachers.
The October study showed that 18% of Tarrant County’s early childhood educators have at least a bachelor’s degree, a lower percentage than in the greater Dallas and North Central Texas areas.
Classes will be offered for the degree in person and online. Seven current faculty members will contribute to the program, and the school will hire four more by its fifth year, Mayer said.
Students who wish to become certified teachers can enroll in the college’s teacher preparation program upon completion of their degree, Lufkin said.
Next, TCC will apply for a level-change by its accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, to reflect that a bachelor’s degree is now the highest credential offered, LeBlanc said. SACSCOC is expected to make a decision in June.
McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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