The details
The job fair will take place from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at HCDE's administration building located at 6300 Irvington Blvd. Head Start is hiring for various positions that support five Early Head Start and 15 Head Start campuses across north and east Harris County, according to a news release.
The county education department is seeking to fill the following positions:
- Administrators
- Facilities and custodial staff
- Family service providers
- Instructional coaches
- Noncertified early childhood education teachers
- Nutrition service managers
- Special education coordinators
According to the news release, the HCDE employee salary for entry-level teachers is $63,600. Minimum wage for hourly staff members is $15.
Interested applicants should bring copies of their resume, licenses/certificates and college transcripts. More information can be found on www.teachharriscounty.org.
The impact
As previously reported in Community Impact, child care centers in the Greater Houston area are struggling to keep up with the growing demand. Parents across the state have seen increased wait times to secure spots at child care facilities, and officials said the problem could be exacerbated by the halt of relief funding provided early in the pandemic.
According to a July report issued by nonprofit Children at Risk, a third of all Texas ZIP codes qualify as “child care deserts,” meaning there are three times more children eligible for early child care than the number of seats available. Since 2020, Texas child care providers have received more than $4 billion in federal relief funds. However, the relief funds expired last September.
Some local child care providers operating at prepandemic capacity said wait times to secure a seat could be affected by the loss of funding. However, they said they’re growing to meet demand while remaining financially frugal.
Contributing to this report were Cassandra Jenkins and Wesley Gardner.
