SAN ANTONIO — There are around 365 child care deserts across the state of Texas.

A child care desert is a term used to describe an area that lacks child care options. 

A child care desert has been identified in Southside San Antonio, and Bexar County is experiencing a shortage of affordable, reliable health care for parents, experts say.

“Really looking at those areas that are underserved with quality child care,” said Jessica Harenza Diop with Educare National. “It’s important for us to be really thinking about where we can be putting quality child care like building an Educare school will bring to the community.” 

Educare’s expansion into San Antonio aims to transform the local child care system. 

The Young Jaguars After School Program offers free child care for qualifying Texas A&M-San Antonio students until late in the evening.

“A lot of our non-traditional students who come, they work during the day,” said Dr. Catherine O’Brien, director campus child care. “They have classes at night. This is a program where they have their kids in a safe environment.”

With growing demand, the Educare Network, which has 25 early learning facilities across the county, is now breaking ground on its first campus in Texas—expanding on what staff at the university were already doing.

“What we are doing here with Educare San Antonio is truly building the future of child care across the city,” said Dr. Melissa Jozwiak, an early childhood professor at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. 

Jozwiak pointed out the lack of access to affordable, high-quality child care in Texas.

“Rural communities are struggling with this. Metropolitan cities are struggling with this. It is not unique to San Antonio,” she said.

Before the pandemic, many areas lacked sufficient child care. However, increased operational costs forced some providers to shut down, exacerbating the problem. 

“Centers are closing classrooms in order to stay afloat financially,” Jozwiak said. “The loss of one center is profound.”

Fewer affordable options are impacting the local workforce, as more families consider the financial burden of raising children, says Jozwiak.

“Every time a family is unable to work, but they want to work, if child care is the reason that’s holding them back that’s impacting our local economy,” Jozwiak said. “That is an employee that one of our local businesses can’t utilize.”

Educare’s summer 2026 opening will provide space for 200 children. It also functions as a training lab for current and future child care professionals. 

“Any child care facility in Bexar County can come work with us to collaborate,” Jozwiak said. “To understand better practices to be able to improve what they are doing.”

San Antonio has over 130,000 children under the age of five. But Jozwiak says there’s only capacity for 50-60% of those kids. She hopes this collaboration will help address the community’s child care needs. 

“200 seats isn’t going to make enough of a difference,” Jozwiak said. “That is why we have taken the approach that we did. Because no one entity can solve this problem. We have to be working collaboratively with others.”