ChildCareTX

Alvarez Head Start

Licensed Center in McAllen, Texas. License #1722748, issued December 9, 2021.

Address
2606 Gumwood Ave, McAllen, TX 78501
Phone
(956) 661-4446
Licensed capacity
138 children
Licensed for
Pre-Kindergarten
Hours
07:00 AM-04:30 PM
Days
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
Child care subsidies
Not accepted

Programs listed with the state: Meals Provided, After School Care, Snacks Provided, Field Trips.

Openings

This program has not told us about its openings. We only publish what a program confirms itself, so there is nothing here yet. Ring them to ask.

Texas Rising Star

No Texas Rising Star rating

Texas Rising Star is voluntary, and a program joins it by applying. It is tied to accepting child care scholarships, so most programs that are not in it never applied rather than failed. Roughly three in five licensed programs in Texas have no rating.

This says nothing about the quality of this program. What the state has assessed about it is the inspection record below.

Where this is

A map of this address loads when you ask for it. Nothing is requested from the map host until then, so opening this page does not tell anyone which program you were reading about.

Open in OpenStreetMap

The pin is where the US Census geocoder placed this address. About one in eight is interpolated along a street rather than resolved to a building, so treat it as the right block rather than the right doorway. How we source this.

What inspectors checked

Texas HHSC records how many individual standards it evaluated in each area of the rules, and how many it found violated. Across 22 areas it checked 4,020 standards at Alvarez Head Start between December 1, 2021 and September 1, 2026 and recorded 7 violations. Those correspond to the citations listed above that were recorded from 2021 onward; anything older than that is in the citation list but not in these counts.

The 22 areas, one by one
Area of the rulesVisitsStandards checkedViolated
Scope, administration, and communication55970
Record keeping44330
Personnel45660
Ratios and group sizes42160
Activities41360
Infants21770
Toddlers2440
Pre-kindergarten3550
School-age2400
Discipline3600
Naptime3360
Field trips2220
Get well care2540
Nighttime care2260
Nutrition and food care31340
Health practices44510
Safety practices42980
Physical facilities21490
Outdoor safety21920
Pools2540
Fire safety21350
Transportation31170

The table adds up to 3,992 of those standards. The remaining 28, including 7 of the violations, were recorded under the state's own catch-all heading, “Individual Standards Evaluated”, which names no area. They are reported here rather than folded into an area above, because the state did not say which area they belong to and we are not going to decide for it.

A high number of standards checked is not a compliment and a low one is not a criticism: how many apply depends on a program's size, its ages served and what the inspector was there to look at. We publish the two counts the state published and do not turn them into a score. This data begins in 2021, which is later than the inspection history above it.

Ask about an opening

This goes to Alvarez Head Start and nobody else. They reply to you directly: we do not sit in the middle of it, and we never pass your details on or sell them.

We email you a copy, and tell you honestly whether it reached them. Texas HHSC has no email address on file for about two programs in five, and for those the phone number above is the faster route.

Tell me about new inspections

One short message each time Texas HHSC records an inspection here, saying that it happened and linking to the record. We do not tell you what the inspector found: a finding without whether it was corrected is misleading, and that pair belongs on the page rather than split across an email.

We ask for nothing but the address, and we send a confirmation first. Your list is never shown to this program, never sold, and every message has a link to stop. An inspection is routine: programs are visited on a schedule and after a complaint, and a visit is not a finding.

State inspection record

HHSC records 17 visits to this operation since October 2017, most recently on September 1, 2026, and 7 citations.

2 of those visits began with Alvarez Head Start reporting something to the state itself rather than HHSC finding it. We publish that because it is part of the record and the state records it separately, not because it is good or bad: a program with none may have had nothing to report. 3,674 of the 12,933 programs listed here have at least one.

212426
visitsvisits where something was found17 recorded visits since October 2017. More visits does not mean a worse program: how often the state comes depends on the license type, the program's age and whether anyone complained.
  • 3High
  • 3Medium High
  • 1Medium

Every citation below records a correction.

Citations

Showing all 7. Indented text is the inspector's own, reproduced verbatim.

  1. Medium High February 7, 2024 Correction verified April 26, 2024

    746.3420(4): Hand Sanitizer - Use by Children Supervised by Adult

    Based on the information obtained during DFPS investigation it was determined that children utilized hand sanitizer without adult supervision and the hand sanitizer remained on a table and accessible to children.
  2. High February 7, 2024 Correction verified April 26, 2024

    746.1205(a)(4): Supervision ensures each child?s safety, well-being, including physical proximity and auditory or visual awareness of each child?s on going activity

    Based on the information obtained during DFPS investigation it was determined that while two caregivers were present in the room, both caregivers were preoccupied serving lunch and facing away from the children. During this time, a child was injured and required medical attention.
  3. High February 7, 2024 Correction verified April 26, 2024

    746.1201(4): AP Responsibilities of Employees and Caregivers -Ensure No Child Abused, Neglected, or Exploited

    Based on the information obtained during DFPS investigation it was determined a child was involved in an incident that raised to the level of neglect under the care of the operation.
  4. High February 7, 2024 Correction verified April 26, 2024

    746.1201(1): Responsibilities of Employees and Caregivers -Demonstrate Competency, Good Judgment, Self-control

    Based on the information obtained during DFPS investigation it was determined that staff did not use good judgement when a child was assigned the task of handing out hand sanitizer to the children and staff did not assist in providing immediate first aid when a child's eye came in contact with the hand sanitizer.
  5. Medium October 25, 2023 Correction verified November 9, 2023

    746.1309(e): Documented Annual Training- Required Content

    Two out of ten staff training records reviewed are missing trainings on the following topics: -Food Allergies -Emergency Preparness -Communicable Diseases
  6. Medium High September 14, 2022 Correction verified October 18, 2022

    746.307(b)(4): Parental Communication - Situation that Placed a Child at Risk

    Based on information obtained during the course of the investigation, operation did not notify parent after a child exited fenced area of operation which led child directly to the street.
  7. Medium High September 14, 2022 Correction verified October 18, 2022

    746.3701: Safety - Areas Free From Hazards

    Based on the information obtained during investigation, driveway area was used for daily walks and exercises. The driveway is unlicensed space and has a gate with an 8.5in gap.
Do you have a child enrolled here?

If Alvarez Head Start confirms you are enrolled, you can tell us what you actually pay. We publish price ranges by city and age so other families know what to expect, and the only reliable source for that is people paying it.

There are no reviews on this site and we are not adding them. We publish the state's inspection record and facts families confirm, not opinions. Your address is never shown publicly; it goes to the program so they can confirm you, and nowhere else.

About this record

Every figure on this page comes from the Texas HHSC Child Care Regulation open data published at data.texas.gov, reproduced as the state recorded it. We do not grade, score or rank programs. A citation is a finding by a state inspector on a given day; it is not a judgment about a program today, and the correction status beside each one is part of the record. This page reflects data retrieved on November 8, 2026. Full methodology.

Operate this program? Write to corrections@childcaretx.com and we will publish your response beside any record here.