A brand-new, six-classroom preschool on Texas Woman’s University land opened for instruction this month, offering full-day, Montessori-inspired child care at no cost to families — and it already has more applicants than the 120 available seats can hold. Bezos Academy Denton celebrated its grand opening ribbon-cutting on Wednesday and welcomed its first students on September 8, giving Denton parents like Nickaresha Brown a tuition-free option that didn’t exist on campus before.
Brown, a TWU student who works full time while pursuing a degree, has her son A’sai enrolled at the new academy. Her previous child care franchise closed about six months before the academy opened, according to The Dallas Morning News. Brown told the paper the preschool gives her the mental space to pursue a master’s degree, and she expects to earn a business administration degree with a human resources concentration in January.
A Campus Childcare Desert Gets a Fix
TWU had a campus daycare facility that closed years before the new academy opened, per the same account, leaving a gap for the roughly 13% of TWU’s undergraduate and graduate student body who are also parents. A 2023 TWU Trellis Student Financial Wellness Survey found that 32% of student-parents missed class the previous semester simply because they lacked child care, the report notes.
Bezos Academy and TWU selected the Denton site specifically because it sits in an area meeting the definition of a childcare desert — a place with at least three children for every available child care seat, according to the report. Karen Hughes White said half of Texans live in child care deserts, the outlet reported. Nationally, roughly one in five college students are parents raising children while attending classes, according to KERA News, a dynamic that puts TWU’s 13% figure into sharper context.
Who Pays for a Free Preschool
The roughly $6 million facility at 1820 Frame St. was built as a public-private partnership among TWU, the City of Denton, Bezos Academy and the Texas Women’s Foundation, per the Dallas Morning News report. Denton contributed $1.5 million toward construction, TWU provided the land and covered the remaining construction cost, and Bezos Academy will pay ongoing operating expenses — utilities, maintenance and staffing — going forward.
The grand opening ceremony featured TWU Chancellor Carine Feyten and Denton Mayor Chris Watts, according to WFAA, which also reported that the Denton campus is Bezos Academy’s largest location in Texas. Denton’s municipal contribution builds on a policy the city adopted in April 2024, when the city council approved a full tax break for qualifying child care facilities to help reduce overhead costs and expand local supply.
Eligibility, the Lottery and a Growing Waitlist
Bezos Academy Denton serves children ages 3 to 5, and enrollment includes full-day care, meals, snacks, curriculum materials and supplies at no cost to families, per the Dallas Morning News account. The academy uses a lottery process to fill seats, giving priority within that lottery to TWU-affiliated applicants, while guaranteeing at least 20% of seats for children of TWU students, faculty and staff. Bezos Academy seeks to serve communities with families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, according to Bezos Academy.
Even with 120 seats, the Denton campus already has a waitlist, having received nearly twice as many applications as available spots, per the Dallas Morning News report. Enrolling a child at Bezos Academy Denton doesn’t prevent a family from applying for or remaining on the state assistance waitlist, since the academy does not accept state child care subsidies, referrals or funding in Texas.
What Free Child Care Is Worth to a Family Budget
Full-time center-based infant care in Texas averages about $11,000 per year, the Dallas Morning News reported — and separate market data shows the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex running even higher, at roughly $14,160 a year, about 12% above the statewide average, according to the Child Care Calculator.
Matt Flores said child care access can be a workforce-development issue as much as a campus service, the Dallas Morning News reported. TWU is now seeking outside partners to provide child care stipends or help student-parents find community resources, and the university plans to compare persistence, retention and time-to-degree outcomes for student-parents using the academy against other parenting students, tracking participation by students, faculty and staff over the life of what is expected to be an initial 10-year agreement.
Part of a Bigger North Texas Push
The Bezos Day One Fund, a $2 billion fund announced by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in September 2018, backs homeless assistance organizations and a national network of Montessori-inspired preschools.
Bezos Academy is also planning a Lakewood location at the Fowler senior living community, though the Dallas Morning News noted that site has no opening date yet because construction and licensing remain incomplete.
