HCDE Hosts Inaugural Subcommittee Meetings for Harris County Coalition on Early Childhood Education
2March 2, 2026 by HCDE Communications
With the Harris County Coalition on Early Childhood Education and Care in place, Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) leadership joined regional partners for a discussion on how to support early childhood education in the county. As part of a subcommittee, HCDE is one of a handful of local organizations who will work together to deliver recommendations to the Texas Legislature this fall surrounding funding and quality of education.
HCDE hosted the initial subcommittee meetings on Feb. 20, bringing together partners for Programming and Operations, Workforce Development and Economic Mobility, and Communications and Advocacy. Chief of Staff Danielle Bartz and Dr. Lisa Caruthers, Center for Afterschool, Summer and Enrichment (CASE) for Kids senior director, represented HCDE.
The coalition was created by Harris County Commissioners Adrian Garcia (Precinct 2) and Lesley Briones (Precinct 4), and features HCDE Superintendent James Colbert Jr. and fellow executives from Greater Houston Partnership, Houston Endowment, Rice University, Houston-Galveston Area Council, Children at Risk, United Way of Greater Houston, Baker Ripley and the University of Houston. Coalition will meet quarterly, while staff from these organizations will meet monthly to narrow down recommendations.
Great job! Keep up the good work HCDE!
Great to see regional partners collaborating to strengthen early childhood education. Bringing together organizations to focus on workforce development, advocacy, and program quality is an important step toward long-term impact for students and families.
Efforts like this also highlight how academic collaboration, branding, and partnerships across institutions can support education initiatives—something platforms like https://www.academicjobs.com/recruitment
are also working to encourage within the academic sector.