Steven Stearman Lied About the Door. The Teacher Who Opened It Says He Coached Her Story.

At 4:15 p.m. on December 5, 2023, the Simmons Bank camera across the parking lot recorded three toddlers standing alone outside the back door of Steven Stearman's daycare in Seven Points, with no adult in view.^[1] I posted that video on October 22, and the next day a short clip of the responding officer's body camera, in which Stearman tells the officer the door "had that happen" before.^[1][2] Within a day, the comment sections had settled on a word for him, the same one I'd used in my own replies: liar.^[3]

Since then, the teacher who opened that door has talked to me on the record. She says that before she sat down with an investigator, Stearman called and quizzed her on her story, and when she answered with what happened, he'd tell her, "Wrong."^[4] When I asked him on October 18 whether he had coached one of his young workers on what to say, he answered, "No."^[5]

This is my second article on Trinidad City Councilmember Steven Stearman's family daycares, and it's my opinion. The first one, published October 18, was a records check of the December 2023 escape at Seven Points, the April 2024 escape at his Athens center, and what he had said in public about both.^[6] Some readers told me it read like reputation repair,^[7] and that was a fair argument. I believe he lied about that door, to the public and to me, more than once.

His centers also carry no liability insurance, and Texas law lets them go without it.^[8][9] I think that has to change, and I've written a letter you can send your state representative and senator.

Where I Stand

I endorsed Steven Stearman. On May 22, about a month before the City Council appointed him,^[10] I wrote him, "You have my full public endorsement if you want it."^[11] On May 27 he invited me to his house so I could "experience the road issue," and I spent the evening there with him.^[12] In September he stopped a proposal to cut Trinidad's water rates again, using real data, and I still give him credit for it.^[13] Since late August we've argued in public, and he has blocked my personal Facebook account twice.^[14][15] I wrote a complaint to the City about how he treats residents and press online, and I never sent it.^[6] On October 16 he lifted the second block, and when I told him I had questions about his daycares, he answered, "Send whatever."^[16]

The Teacher Who Opened the Door

Two workers were in the infant room that afternoon. One of them opened the room's back door to let in children coming off the school bus. She spoke with me by phone on the evening of October 22 and told me she was fine being on the record. I'm not naming her. She was a young front-line worker, and a grand jury declined to indict the workers police referred after that day.^[4][6]

Stearman wasn't at the center when the children got out. He pulled up in his truck around 5 p.m., about 45 minutes after the bank camera first shows the toddlers outside.^[1][17]

She told me the center was badly short-staffed that afternoon. "One lady quit the day before," she said, and one or two people had called in, which left "only three workers, maybe four" for five classrooms that were "fully packed." On a normal day there were "Maybe eight, at the least." Except for the infant room, each classroom had one teacher, "so I was doing everything." In her words, "We were very short staffed."^[4]

Felicia Stearman, his wife, was the director at Seven Points that day, she said, "But she was out." Felicia was in Athens, "Because they were opening up the Athens location," and nobody came over to help. The staff were told to make it work and move children between rooms. She doesn't remember Felicia being there after the children got out.^[4] Stearman's own account to me puts Felicia in Athens too; he says he moved her there from Seven Points that November.^[8]

The State's findings two days after the escape fit what she describes. It cited the center because the infants "were left unsupervised in the classroom when the caregiver left the room to take a school age child to their classroom," and because the infant room was used as a passageway for children coming in from the bus. When the State checked back that January, the center "confirmed there are 3 caregivers in the classroom."^[18]

On the door itself, her account helps Stearman on one point. It's a thick, heavy door, and she expected it to close on its own after she let the bus children through. It didn't. A door that doesn't close by itself is what Stearman described to the officer that evening.^[4][17] She doesn't remember wind. She remembers it was cold.^[4]

She told me October 22 was the first day she had ever seen the officer's body camera footage, so she never knew what Stearman told him. She also never gave the parents a time for how long the children were out. "I wasn't going to give anybody false information when I myself had no idea," she said.^[4]

Afterward, she said, Stearman called her to get ready for "a meeting with some investigator person" at his house. She can't remember whose investigator it was. "He was preparing me for the interview and he would ask me a question, I would answer it, and he'd go, 'Wrong,'" she told me. Then he told her how to say it. Her fiancé and his mother heard the call, she said. She recorded it on her fiancé's phone, and the file was lost when he switched phones.^[4]

She told the same story two years ago. In September 2024 she asked Stephanie Morgan, the mother of one of the three toddlers, to call her, and Morgan recorded the call while her lawsuit against the center was pending. Near the start, Morgan tells her, "I know that your mom reached out to me and she was talking to the lawyers." On that call the worker says Stearman's "point of the story was something about the malfunction of the door," and that "anything that I would say that was quote-unquote wrong or the truth, he would say wrong, try again."^[19] Morgan posted the recording publicly on October 22.^[20]

Every Place I Believe He Lied, Strongest First

1. "No One Ever Told Me About the Door"

The Seven Points officer who responded wrote that Stearman sat down with him and "explained to me the situation that he has with that particular door," and that "the door does not lock without proper force applied."^[21] I've watched all 30 minutes of the body camera video. Just before the door comes up, Stearman asks the officer how long he's been with Seven Points. The answer is eight months. His state license record shows he had joined the department that April.^[22] Stearman asks, "You like Raymond?" Raymond Wennerstrom was the Seven Points chief of police at the time.^[23] The officer answers, "I'mma keep it real with you man, I'm not the one."^[17]

At 5:07 p.m., Stearman explains the door himself: "it didn't shut all the way. And it had that happen with the door before, but, you know, its just those adjustment things that is the closer." He also tells the officer, "I fought with the fire marshals over this already. I had locks on them," and explains that the fire marshals wouldn't let him put chain locks on the doors.^[17]

On October 13, in the Cedar Creek Lake Life group, he wrote, "did you see the word 'had' anywhere in that report? Where exactly does it say I had prior knowledge of an issue with that door?"^[24] On October 17 he told me, "no one ever told me about the door."^[8] The police report doesn't say "had." It says "has." Stearman said "had" himself, on camera, that same evening. Nobody had to tell him.

I believe him about the fire marshal. Fire code limits what can go on an exit door, and that's a real problem for anyone running a daycare. It doesn't explain telling the public and me that he never knew. He knew the door had done this before, he said so on camera, and when parents raised it again this month he denied it. That's a lie.

2. The Wind

On October 17 he gave me a second explanation: "when I was with the police officer, the wind is what was holding the door open. It was very very windy." When I read him his own words from the body camera and asked what he meant, he answered, "The wind catch it open."^[8]

The bank camera shows that door standing open from 4:34 until about 5 p.m.^[1] When the officer reached it, at 4:49, about ten minutes before Stearman arrived, his body camera shows what was holding it open: a door stopper at the foot of the door, which has a push bar.^[17] Once Stearman got there and he and the officer went inside, the door was shut. He was explaining it to the officer from about 5:05 to 5:08, and the bank camera recorded the door at 5:05 and again at 5:08. Both times it's shut, and it stays shut through the end of the video at 5:29.^[1][17]

When the officer pulls in at 4:39, and again at 4:45, the flag on the bank's pole hangs still. Wind doesn't come up anywhere in the 30 minutes of footage, and the airport weather stations nearest Seven Points, in Athens and Corsicana, both recorded calm wind by 5 p.m.^[17][25] The teacher who was there remembers cold, not wind.^[4]

While the officer was at that door, a stopper was holding it open. While Stearman was with the officer, the door was shut. Wind wasn't holding it open either time. That's a lie.

3. "No" to Coaching

When I asked him on October 18 whether he, his wife and a director had coached one of the young workers on what to say to the State and police, he answered, "No."^[5] The worker he'd have coached has now told it twice, two years apart, once to a parent and once to me, and both times she describes the same thing: him asking her questions and telling her she had the answers wrong.^[19][4]

He may have known what she said long before I asked. On October 17 he told me that three hours after Morgan's attorney "sent in that to court," Morgan "calls a daycare worker looking for more evidence to keep case open. I have that recording of her and the employee."^[8] The docket shows subpoenas issued in Morgan's case on September 25, 2024, the day of Morgan's call with the worker.^[26] If the recording he has is that one, he had her account in her own words when he told me "No."

The recording of his own call to her is lost, so it's her word against his. Her word hasn't changed in two years. I believe his "No" was a lie.

4. "There's a Reason She Lost in Court"

On October 13 Stearman wrote publicly about Stephanie Morgan: "There's a reason she lost in court."^[24] Morgan and another parent sued in May 2024. The court granted them a temporary restraining order that August and never granted the temporary injunction they asked for. In May 2025 they dropped the case voluntarily,^[26] and the judge dismissed every claim "without prejudice to the refiling of claims."^[27] No court ever ruled on the merits.^[26]

He has told me "lost" is how his lawyer put it to him.^[8] After my first article laid out the docket, he told me the parents "couldn't prove up in court."^[28] The docket doesn't say that either. Telling the public a mother lost when no court ever decided her case warns off every other parent deciding whether to speak up, and it helps his business. That's a lie he has kept repeating.

5. "Four to Eight Minutes"

He told me the children were outside four to eight minutes, a figure he worked out from phone records, dispatch times and the bus's travel time, not from the video.^[8] Morgan says she was told that night it was four minutes.^[29] The teacher says that number didn't come from her.^[4]

The bank camera shows the three toddlers alone outside the door at 4:15. At 4:39, when the officer's body camera starts, all three are still outside, in the arms of the women from the bank.^[1][17] That's at least 24 minutes outside the building, out of his center's hands. The State found the children "outside of the building unsupervised for over 10 minutes."^[18] Four to eight minutes was a lie.

6. "Back Inside at 12:21"

Four and a half months after Seven Points, on April 18, 2024, a toddler walked out of the Building Blocks center in Athens. According to the Henderson County sheriff's report, the person who found him reported him "next to the road at Athens Equine," the business next door. Stearman told the deputy the teacher was alone with her class and couldn't leave the other children to chase him, because the second adult who is normally there "left for a few minutes to run to Walmart." The deputy filed his own report with CPS, citing "the apparent lack of adults present to pursue the child, in addition to the lack of any physical barrier preventing the child access to the roadway."^[30]

That makes four toddlers out of two of his centers in under five months.^[18][30] Both times a child got through an exit, and both times an adult was missing from where one was needed.

In my first article I wrote that, as Stearman told the deputy, the boy left about 12:18 p.m. and was back inside at 12:21.^[6] I shouldn't have left that standing on its own. The same report is dated 12:21, dispatches the deputy at about 12:24, and says that while the deputy was on his way, "a teacher from Building Blocks came up to the caller and advised she took the child back."^[30] Stearman told me on October 17 that the teacher "had the kid while they were on the phone with the sheriffs department."^[8] His own account puts the boy outside after 12:21. I asked him how "back inside at 12:21" fits, whether his camera shows the boy coming back in, and whether he would show me.^[31] He hasn't answered. The time he gave the deputy was a lie.

7. "It's Not What She Says"

On October 13 he wrote about the bank's video, "oh yes, I have it. And it's not what she says." When I asked to watch it privately, he declined on his lawyer's advice.^[24][8] Morgan has since given me the video, and I posted it on October 22. It shows the three toddlers alone at the door at 4:15 with no adult in view. From 4:34 until about 5 p.m., the door stands open.^[1] I believe "it's not what she says" was a lie. Anyone can watch the video now and decide.

8. "I'm the One That Reported It to State"

That evening Stearman told the officer he had already called the State, and the officer's report says Stearman told him he had "already spoken to the state."^[17][21] On October 17 he first told me he emailed the State on his way to the center and that the investigator called him back around 6 a.m. the next morning. Later the same day he told me he called. He also told me, "I'm the one that reported it to state."^[8] The State's public record shows no self-reported incidents at any of his centers.^[18][32] An email in his sent folder would prove me wrong, and I asked him to forward it.^[31] He never did. I believe it was a lie.

9. The Waiver

Stearman told me his 20-year-old director at Seven Points is allowed to run the center: "we did request a waiver before that was done," and "The waiver is on file at state."^[8] The teacher told me the 20-year-old was the director at Seven Points in name only, and that "when State showed up," a director from another of his centers "would come over."^[4] If the State had approved a waiver, nobody would need to come over. I believe the waiver is another lie. The State can prove me wrong by releasing it, and so can he.

10. Who Was in Charge

On October 17 Stearman told me he had switched Felicia "from Seven Points to Athens" in November 2023, that "the Licensing lady never did it," and that the assistant director "was considered the director." He added, "I do not have documentation of that." Later the same day he wrote, "Felicia was the director." He also told me the State issued a violation because the director wasn't there, and took it off after he appealed.^[8] The teacher says Felicia was the director and was in Athens that afternoon, and that the assistant director, who wasn't old enough to be a director, "couldn't legally be in charge."^[4]

I believe nobody qualified was in charge at Seven Points when those toddlers walked out, and that his two versions of who was are lies told to cover it. The State's file on his appeal would prove me wrong.

Public Fights, Then a Public Apology

Stearman's public fights didn't start with the daycare posts. These are the ones I was part of, and what followed.

• September 12. He blocked my personal Facebook account and left my Watchtower page alone. He lifted the block the next day, after I posted about it.^[14]
• September 13. I wrote that he was "serving right alongside" public officials I called tyrants, and called it "Disgraceful." About ten minutes later he wrote, "Ron I bet you can't whoop my ass. lol" A minute after that: "I'll tell you what I'll resign if you show up at my doorstep." Then he told me to have my attorney make my argument "in the proper forum," and wrote, "But I'm your huckleberry," and, "Consider this your invitation to test your theory. I welcome the challenge." When I wrote, "wow, amazing comments from a public official," he answered, "what part of I don't give a shit what you say do you not get?" I told him to "get off Facebook before you make yourself look like an even bigger idiot," and he answered, "hey Ron fuck off."^[33] Before the afternoon was over, the water group's administrator, who is married to his brother, removed me from the group. She says he had nothing to do with it, and I take her at her word.^[34]
• September 17. He explained the block: "I'm simply done with the constant negativity from you. That's why I blocked you. It wasn't because you disagreed with me or criticized me." He added, "I knew blocking you would annoy you, and apparently it worked."^[35]
• September 19. He blocked me again.^[15] That evening he posted a public apology to the community: "I owe this community a sincere apology for my behavior today." He wrote, "I allowed someone to get to me deeply," and, "I can do better, and I will do better."^[36]
• October 12 and 13. With parents asking about his centers, he put up the "CAN'T TOUCH THIS" picture, told a critic, "There's a reason she lost in court," and posted the "I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT" duck.^[37][24][38]
• October 16. He lifted the second block and told me, "Send whatever."^[16]
• October 21. Asked six questions, he answered, "I'll be back Sunday."^[31]

A public apology on Facebook is not new for him. This one said he could do better. Three weeks later he was posting the MC Hammer picture and the court duck. He brings real experience to the council, and I've never said otherwise. There's no world where this behavior from a public official should be deemed acceptable, regardless of what experience someone brings to the table.

What He Did With the Month

While parents asked about those two escapes, Stearman put up a picture of himself dressed as MC Hammer under "CAN'T TOUCH THIS" as his profile picture.^[37] A former classmate says he made the image with AI, as one of his jokes about Trinidad politics; Stearman is the one who put it up that week.^[7] Under it he wrote, "Dang, are y'all pissed?" and, "Keep helping me grow," with a screenshot of his page's view counts. He wrote, "Im waiting on them drop the word allegation and allegedly. Then they can have their chance back in court," and, "Making this very clear I'm done with her bullshit. We are about to go back to court. Too many lies."^[37]

He posted the duck at the judge's bench.^[38] He told a critic, "the more and more you people keep dogging me the more and more my business keeps growing," and, "I can sit here all day. I'm fully retired. Let's do this."^[24] He told me teachers who saw something and didn't report it "deserve it" if they go to jail. He told me he had hired a lawyer to sue Morgan for defamation, and that it hadn't been filed.^[8][39] He told Morgan's sister-in-law, Brooke Organ, to "Get ready,"^[38] which, from the man posting "I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT," reads to me as one more threat of court.

He also posted an AI-made book cover titled "The Unauthorized Biography of Steven Stearman," credited to "a woman who apparently knows more about my life than I do," with a "STALKER FUEL" tumbler beside her and the tagline "A SHORT COMEDY ABOUT OBSESSION, FACEBOOK, AND THE WOMAN WHO JUST CAN'T QUIT ME." In the same post he wrote, "Every comment section is a courtroom. And everybody with a Wi-Fi connection is suddenly the district attorney."^[40]

He has a point about comment sections. Some of what has been said about him and his family this month has been ugly, and he has told me his family has gotten death threats.^[8] None of that changes what's in the State's file, on the bank's camera or on the body camera. Stephanie Morgan wrote the morning after my first article, "Accountability is not revenge. It is the bare minimum when children's safety is involved."^[41] Nearly three years after Seven Points, those parents are still waiting on the minimum.

His Answer: Sunday

At 11:44 a.m. on Wednesday, October 21, I sent him six questions about these points. Forty-two minutes later he answered: "I'll be back Sunday. We can talk then." When I told him I was publishing that day, he wrote, "I'm fine with that go ahead."^[31]

He's away on an anniversary cruise with his wife. When he first mentioned it, on Saturday, October 17, he wrote that it was their anniversary "today" and that he'd be "available till about three. After that either you can run the story or wait for me to answer tomorrow."^[8] He did answer me the next day.^[5] I took that to mean he'd be away for the day. When I asked him on October 21 whether he was on a cruise, he answered, "Yeah, I told you when we talked before it was my anniversary and I was out of town. I'll be back Sunday."^[31] I hadn't realized he meant a week. "I'm not going to spend our entire time together working on this," he wrote that afternoon. "I'm not trying to avoid anything. I'm simply choosing to enjoy the time I have with my wife, and I don't believe that's unreasonable." He added that the incident "happened nearly three years ago," that he has "been open about the situation," and that if my questions couldn't wait until Sunday, "the licensing investigator has the information you're seeking."^[31]

Wanting that week with his wife is fair, and I told him he had a point. The timing is his, though. He has told me he is "fully retired." When I asked about it last week, he offered his Xbox hours as proof: "It's about 6000 so far already this year. Lmao."^[8] He spent most of the month before the cruise posting memes at the people asking questions about his centers. As I told him, answering some of the six would have taken less time than arguing why they should wait until Sunday.^[31] They're printed here in full, with why I asked each one. He's welcome to answer them on his own page.

The Six Questions

These went to Stearman by Facebook Messenger at 11:44 a.m. on Wednesday, October 21, exactly as written here:^[31]

Steven, before I publish the follow-up I want to give you a chance to answer the specific points I'm going to write about. Same terms as before: answer what you want, and "no comment" is fine. I'd appreciate answers at your earliest convenience.

1. On the body camera on December 5, 2023, you told Officer Williams the door "didn't shut all the way. And it had that happen with the door before, but, you know, its just those adjustment things that is the closure." When I asked you what you meant, you said, "The wind catch it open," and that "when I was with the police officer, the wind is what was holding the door open." Wind doesn't come up anywhere in the body camera footage I have. At about 4:45 PM on that footage, the flag on the bank's flagpole is hanging straight down, and the two weather stations nearest Seven Points, in Athens and Corsicana, both recorded calm wind by 5 PM. Which account is right?

2. You told me Stephanie Morgan's family lost their case. The docket shows they dropped it voluntarily, with no ruling on the merits and no temporary injunction granted. Do you still say they lost?

3. On the body camera you told the officer you had already called the State. You told me you emailed the State on your way there and the investigator called you back around 6 AM the next morning. Did you speak with anyone at the State that evening? Will you forward the email from your sent folder?

4. In Athens you told the deputy the boy was back inside at 12:21. You told me the teacher "had the kid while they were on the phone with the sheriffs department." The report is dated 12:21, the deputy was dispatched at about 12:24, and the report says the teacher reached the caller while the deputy was on his way. How was he back inside at 12:21? Does the camera show him coming back in, and at what time? Can you show me?

5. What date did the push-button mag locks go in at Athens?

6. For not carrying liability insurance, which reason did you give HHSC: financial reasons, or no insurer willing to write a policy? When did you first report it? Have any of your centers applied for coverage since 2020, and if you were turned down, by whom, and why?

Thank you.

The first question gave him the chance to square the wind with his own words on the body camera. The second asks whether he'll stand behind "lost" now that he has seen the docket. The third goes to his account of reporting Seven Points to the State, which an email in his sent folder would settle. The fourth is Athens, where his own words to me don't fit the time he gave the deputy. The fifth tests something he told me about the Athens locks, which only a date can check. The sixth is the insurance question. If he reported it the way the law requires, the State already has his answer on file.^[9]

If Steven has a challenge to anything in this article, he's welcome to contact me for a correction, and if I got something wrong I'll fix it. Any threat of civil litigation should go to my attorneys. He has their information.

How We Got Here

Three toddlers walked out of one of his centers in December 2023, and a fourth walked out of another in April 2024.^[18][30] The State cited Seven Points twice at its highest risk level and marked both citations corrected by the end of January.^[18] A grand jury declined to indict the workers police referred.^[6] The parents' lawsuit ended with no ruling either way.^[26] The State's most recent monitoring inspection at Seven Points, on October 16, found no deficiencies.^[42] Nothing I've seen shows Stearman broke the law. Every part of the system did what it was built to do, and the parents never got an admission from the owner of the center where their children walked out.

No Insurance, and Texas Says That's Fine

Stearman told me his centers didn't carry liability insurance in 2023 and don't now. Parents sign his one-page "Acknowledgment of No Liability Coverage," and he says every parent signs it. He says he reports it to the State.^[8][43]

That's legal. Texas law requires a licensed child care center to carry liability insurance, $100,000 per occurrence since January.^[9][44] Since 1993, though, a center that can't get coverage "for financial reasons or for lack of availability of an underwriter willing to issue a policy" can go without it.^[9][45] It only has to give parents written notice and tell the State its reason. The same section says being uninsured doesn't protect a center from a negligence claim, so a family can still sue. There's just no policy to pay.^[9]

Nothing in that exemption looks at a center's safety record. The State weighs an operation's repeated violations over the past five years when it renews a license,^[46] and an insurance agent who works with child care providers told the Dallas Morning News this month that some insurers look at a provider's licensing record and may ask it to explain deficiencies from the past five years before they'll quote a policy.^[47] The exemption asks for a reason and a form. The State's handbook for its own inspectors tells them to check that parents were notified. I found no step in it for checking whether the reason is true.^[48] Insurance status doesn't appear anywhere on the State's public child care search.^[32] A parent finds out a center is uninsured from the center, at enrollment.^[49]

The Legislature has tried to close it twice. In 2019, Rep. Chris Turner filed a bill that would have repealed the exemption outright.^[50] It got a hearing in the House Human Services Committee, nobody registered against it, and it died there.^[51][52] In 2021, Sen. Angela Paxton filed a bill that would have struck the exemption and required insurance within 60 days of licensure;^[53] the committee rewrote it and those sections came out.^[54] In 2025, a bill written to fix foster care cut the required coverage for child care centers by two-thirds, from $300,000 to $100,000. No committee document I could find gives a reason for that cut,^[44][55] and no child care center or industry group appears on its witness lists.^[56][57]

The industry's side deserves a hearing. Child care insurance in Texas has gotten scarce and expensive. KERA reported this month that only two traditional insurance carriers are left writing it in Texas, and Tim Kaminski of the Texas Licensed Child Care Association told KERA premiums went "from $30,000 a year to $90,000 a year."^[58] His association has said nearly half of the state's licensed centers are at risk of closing.^[59]

I'd keep the exemption for small centers. What I'd change is who gets to use it. A center with a recent pattern of high-risk citations, the same five-year record the State already reviews at renewal, shouldn't get to opt out of insurance quietly. Either it carries coverage, or its uninsured status goes on the State's public search where parents can see it before they enroll. The State should also check the reason a center gives instead of filing it. None of that closes a small center that keeps its record clean.

His centers had three toddlers walk out in December, two high-risk citations from the State for that afternoon, another toddler out in April, and a deputy's report to CPS,^[18][30] and the insurance law still asks nothing more of them than a one-page form. In January, arguing on his public page with a woman over something she had said about his wife, he wrote, "I don't need your fucking money. I'm already rich fucker."^[60] In July, about a month after he joined the Council, his new profile picture read "SUGAR DADDY & SUGAR" and "I PROVIDE. SHE SMILES. EVERYONE WINS."^[61] I asked him which reason he gave the State, financial or no insurer willing to write a policy, and whether any of his centers has applied for coverage since 2020. He wanted until Sunday.^[31]

What Parents Can't See

Search Texas Child Care shows a center's inspections, its citations and a count of self-reported incidents. For Seven Points, that count is zero.^[18][32] I can't tell from the page whether an owner's call to the State on the night of an incident would show up there, so a parent can't use it to check what Stearman told me. A parent also can't see from it how many caregivers were on duty when something went wrong, or whether the State has let a center run under a director it would otherwise turn away. Stearman says the State has his waiver on file. If it does, parents should be able to read it.^[8]

Some parents who speak up publicly also lose their spot. In July, three months before any of this, an Athens mother posted in a local Facebook group that she had enrolled her almost 2-year-old at Building Blocks in Athens about three weeks earlier. After she posted asking for feedback on the center, she wrote, her family was handed a note saying he couldn't attend after that week. On his last day, she wrote, no one told her he'd been hurt and she got no incident report; that evening she found "a scratch near his eye along with bruising and redness on his body." She wrote that she filed a report with Texas Child Care Regulation.^[62] That's her account, and I haven't spoken with her.

If you have a child in care, ask the center for proof of liability coverage. If it doesn't have any, ask which reason it gave the State. Check the center's inspection history on the State's Search Texas Child Care site before you sign anything.

Texas Law Needs to Be Stricter Here

Everything in this article happened inside Texas law as it's written today. Three toddlers walked out of one center and a fourth walked out of another. The State cited the first center and marked the citations corrected by the end of January. A grand jury declined to indict, a lawsuit ended without a ruling, and the centers kept running without liability insurance on the strength of a one-page form.^{[18][30][6][26][43]} I believe state law needs to be stricter in three places:

1. Insurance should follow the safety record. A center with a recent pattern of high-risk citations shouldn't be able to drop liability coverage just by filing a reason and handing parents a form. Either it carries coverage, or its uninsured status goes where parents can see it before they enroll. Any center that goes without coverage should also have to tell parents, in writing, the specific reason it gave the State: that it couldn't afford coverage, or that no insurer would write a policy. Today the law requires the reason only in the center's notice to the State. Parents only have to be told the center has no coverage.^[9][49] Stearman's form quotes the law's whole list of possible reasons and never says which one is his.^[43]
2. The State should check the reason. Right now a center tells the State why it can't get insurance, and I found nothing showing anyone verifies it.^[48]
3. Parents should be able to see what the State already knows. Insurance status, any waiver the State grants a center, and whether each incident on a center's record was reported by the center itself all belong on Search Texas Child Care.

None of that would close a small center that keeps its record clean.

How a Law Changes in Texas

The Texas Legislature meets in regular session once every two years, starting at noon on the second Tuesday in January of each odd-numbered year.^[63] The next session runs from January 12 to May 31, 2027.^[64] Legislators can start filing bills for it on the first Monday after the November general election, which this year is November 9, and can keep filing freely through the first 60 days of the session.^[65]

A bill needs a legislator to file it. Once filed, it's sent to a committee, and that's where most bills stop. A large number are never voted out of committee at all.^[65] Child care bills like the ones in this article have gone to the House Human Services Committee and the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.^[51][57] The committee chair decides which bills get a hearing. At a public hearing, people can testify, and during a regular session the House has to post notice of a hearing at least five days ahead.^[65] People who testify or register for or against a bill are listed on the committee's public witness list.^[52]

A bill that clears committee goes to a vote of the full House or Senate, then through the same steps in the other chamber, then to the governor. The governor has 10 days to sign or veto it, or until 20 days after the session ends if the bill arrives in the session's last 10 days.^[65]

The 2019 bill that would have repealed the insurance exemption outright got a hearing, nobody registered against it, and it still died in committee.^[51][52] A bill with no opposition can die as quietly as one that's fought, if nobody is pushing for it.

What You Can Do

Look up your state representative and state senator at Who Represents Me with your home address. Write both of them before bill filing opens on November 9, and ask them to file a bill that does these three things, or to sign on to one. Tell them where you live, so they know you're a constituent, and ask them to answer you in writing.

Once a bill is filed, you can look it up on Texas Legislature Online and follow it through committee. When it's set for a hearing, you can go to the Capitol to testify or register your position, and you can call the offices of the committee members. Share the letter with other parents in your district. One letter is easy to set aside. A stack of them from the same district is harder.

A Letter You Can Send

Copy the letter, replace each ALL-CAPS placeholder with your own information, and send one to your state representative and one to your state senator. For TITLE_HERE, use Representative or Senator.

Dear TITLE_HERE LAST_NAME_HERE,

I live in YOUR_CITY_HERE, in your district. I'm writing about child care safety, and I'm asking you to file or support a bill in the 2027 legislative session.

Texas Human Resources Code Section 42.049 requires a licensed child care center to carry liability insurance, but a center can go without it if it tells the State it couldn't get coverage for financial reasons or because no insurer would write a policy, and gives parents written notice. The center has to give the State its reason, but it only has to tell parents that it has no coverage. Nothing in that exemption looks at a center's safety record. As far as I can tell, the State doesn't check whether the reason a center gives is true, and a center's insurance status doesn't appear on the State's Search Texas Child Care site, so parents find out from the center, at enrollment.

I know child care insurance has gotten scarce and expensive, and I don't want small centers to close. I'm asking you to file or support a bill that would:

1. Require a center with a recent pattern of high-risk citations either to carry liability coverage or to have its uninsured status posted on Search Texas Child Care, where parents can see it before they enroll.
2. Require any center without coverage to tell parents in writing the specific reason it gave the State, and require the State to verify that reason.
3. Post on Search Texas Child Care any waiver the State grants a center, and whether each incident on a center's record was reported by the center itself.

Bill filing for the 2027 session opens November 9. Please let me know in writing where you stand on this, and whether you will file or support a bill that does these things.

Thank you,

YOUR_NAME_HERE

YOUR_STREET_ADDRESS_HERE

YOUR_CITY_STATE_ZIP_HERE

YOUR_PHONE_OR_EMAIL_HERE

If Your Child Was Hurt or Neglected at a Child Care Center

If a child is in danger right now, call 911.^[66]

To report abuse or neglect at any child care center in Texas, call the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400 or report online at txabusehotline.org. The State's own reporting page lists abuse of children in child care facilities among the reports it takes.^[66]

In Henderson County, take what you have to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, 206-A North Murchison Street, Athens, TX 75751, 903-675-5128. If your town has its own police department, you can go to them instead.^[67]

Before you do, save everything. Keep every incident report, text, email and app message from the center, the enrollment papers, and any no-insurance form you signed. Photograph injuries the day you find them, with something that shows the date. Write down who told you what, and when. Give investigators copies and keep the originals.