Texas children deserve to be supported by qualified, licensed Certified Child Life Specialists—not untrained individuals. AND these vulnerable children should be protected from child predators—so we’re calling on legislators to create a licensure law that protects families and ensures safe, professional psychosocial care. The public is at risk, and the child life profession in Texas is in crisis. 

Right now, hospitals and healthcare facilities across Texas can legally hire unqualified or uncredentialed individuals to act as child life specialists. These unqualified individuals can also set up a private practice in the community, with ZERO oversight. And even scarier, there is NO MANDATED FINGERPRINT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK required for child life specialists. Without proper state regulations, anyone can fill this role — even without the specialized education, clinical training, or certification and without a fingerprint background check ensuring they are not on a DO NOT HIRE list as a child predator. This doesn’t just threaten the integrity of a respected healthcare profession; it puts children and families at risk during some of the hardest moments of their lives.

Why Child Life Specialists Matter:  Certified Child Life Specialists (CCLSs) are trained professionals who help children and families cope with the fear, stress, and uncertainty that come with illness, injury, and hospitalization. Their skilled psychosocial support has proven positive outcomes not only in the moment, but in the long-term as well.

They use evidence-based techniques to:

• Reduce pain, anxiety, and medical trauma before, during, and after procedures and hospitalization
• Prepare children for surgeries and tests in language they understand
• Support families through trauma, grief, and medical decision-making and advocate for parents to always have their voice heard
• Improve health literacy and communication between parents, children, and care teams

When hospitals employ individuals without this child life specific education and comprehensive clinical training, children can experience unnecessary distress, and long-term medically-induced trauma and fear of medical care and medical care providers.

The Problem: Texas does not require licensure for child life specialists.

What This Means: There’s no legal standard to determine who is qualified to provide psychosocial care to children in healthcare settings or in the community, and there is no mandated fingerprint criminal background check. Families may unknowingly receive support from bad actors without proper education or certification, and from child predators.


🛡️The CCLS Credential — earned through rigorous education, a 600-hour clinical internship, and a national certification exam — is not legally protected.

To Put it in Perspective: in Texas, professions like eyelash extension technicians, auctioneers, and tow truck drivers require licensure. But Certified Child Life Specialists, who support children facing cancer, trauma, end-of-life, and loss, do not require licensure.

Additionally, many Texas healthcare and psychosocial care providers, including doctors, dentists, nurses, social workers and others, are mandated to complete a fingerprint criminal background check because they may be in unsupervised settings with children and adults. But there is no fingerprint criminal background check for Certified Child Life Specialists who are often at the bedside, in treatment rooms, imaging suites, and patient rooms, with the children they are supporting, and while unsupervised.

What Licensure Would Do:

• Protect the public by ensuring that only qualified, credentialed professionals provide psychosocial care to children and families.
• Mandate fingerprint criminal background checks to mitigate risks of exposure to child predators.
• Uphold the integrity of the child life profession.
• Give families the confidence and peace of mind, that the person supporting their child has the training, ethical standards to do so safely and effectively,  and is not a predator.

What We’re Asking:
 We call on Texas Legislators to pass the Families First: Child Life Services Safety Act mandating licensure for Certified Child Life Specialists. This law would ensure that every child in Texas receives high-quality, ethical, and evidence-based psychosocial care — provided by Certified Child Life Specialists who meet national standards and are held accountable through state regulation, and are safe for their children.

By signing this petition:

• You are--Standing up for the safety and well-being of Texas children.
• Supporting the professionals who dedicate their lives to helping families through life’s most difficult moments.
• Urging lawmakers to recognize Certified Child Life Specialists as essential, licensed healthcare professionals.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

And after you sign this petition for Texas, please sign the  California CCLS Licensure Petition

Together, we can make Texas a leader in protecting our most vulnerable children and families and setting a national standard for safe, compassionate psychosocial care. Check out our website at https://texascclsforlicensure.com/

Sign and Share the petition to support licensure for Certified Child Life Specialists in Texas.