Texas Children’s Products Certification (Form 2885): Posting and Renewal

Texas Form 2885 is the annual Children’s Products Certification that licensed child care centers and licensed or registered child care homes sign to confirm they have reviewed the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recall list and removed any unsafe children’s products from the facility. You do not submit it to the state. You sign it, keep it on file at your location, and show it to licensing inspectors, parents, or staff on request.¹

Who Has to Complete It

Two kinds of operations are covered: licensed child care centers under 26 TAC 746.4135, and licensed or registered child care homes under 26 TAC 747.3935. If you hold a permit from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to operate either, the certification applies to you.² The signature has to come from the permit holder, a designee, or the facility director.

A product falls under the rule if it was designed or intended for use by a child under 13, or is used by a caregiver during the care of a child under 13. Clothing, food, and medications are excluded. A covered product becomes “unsafe” once the CPSC recalls it, and it stays unsafe until the recall is rescinded or the item is repaired or retrofitted under the manufacturer’s remedy. A recalled crib that the manufacturer has fixed is no longer unsafe. A recalled high chair sitting in your storage room with no repair applied still is, and it cannot be used by or accessible to any child in your care.³

The Review That Has to Happen Before You Sign

The form itself takes a few minutes. The review it certifies is the real work.

Start by registering at cpsc.gov/Newsroom/Subscribe and selecting the product categories that match what’s in your facility: cribs, strollers, toys, high chairs, and similar items. Once you’re subscribed, the CPSC emails you when new recalls are announced in those categories.¹

For the annual certification, go further than the alerts. Pull up the full recall database at cpsc.gov/Recalls, filter by the relevant categories, and walk through your facility checking makes, models, and date codes against the listings.⁴ When you find a match, pull the item out of use and follow the remedy in the recall notice. That walk-through is what you are certifying on Form 2885.

How to Fill Out the Form

Download the current version from the Texas HHS website.⁵ The fields are straightforward:

Name of the child care center or home, exactly as it appears on your HHSC permit.
The “as of” date through which you reviewed CPSC recall notices.
At least one checked box showing how you notify parents and employees about recalled items: Public Postings, CPSC Recall Notebook, or Email. More than one is fine.
The certification statement itself, which says you have reviewed the CPSC bulletins and that any otherwise-unsafe product still on the premises is either an antique or collectible not used by or accessible to any child, or is being retrofitted and likewise not accessible to any child.
Signature and date from the permit holder, a designee, or the director.

Pick a notification method you will actually use. If you check Email, expect an inspector to ask for examples of recall-related messages you’ve sent to parents.

Where It Goes and What You Have to Post

The signed form stays at the facility. The regulation requires it to be on file and available for review by licensing staff, parents, and employees during hours of operation.² Keeping it in the same binder as your license and most recent inspection letter is a practical place for it. Hold on to prior years’ forms too; if an investigation reaches back into an earlier compliance period, that year’s signed form is your evidence.

The form alone doesn’t satisfy the rule. Both 746.4135 and 747.3935 also require a posted notice in a prominent, publicly accessible spot, such as a lobby bulletin board or near sign-in, telling parents and employees how to reach the CPSC recall list online. The notice should direct them to cpsc.gov or to the HHSC website where recall information is available.⁶

The Two Narrow Exceptions

The rules let you keep a recalled product on the premises in only two situations. The first is an antique or collectible that no child uses or can reach, such as a vintage toy on display in the director’s office. The second is a product that is actively being retrofitted to fix the safety issue and is inaccessible to children in the meantime, such as a recalled play yard in a locked maintenance room while you wait on the manufacturer’s repair kit.² Both exceptions carry a Medium-High weight in the minimum standards, so if you rely on one, expect inspectors to look closely at where the item sits and how a child could get to it.

What a Missing or False Certification Costs

Form 2885 compliance is checked during routine licensing inspections and can be reviewed during complaint investigations. If you can’t produce a current signed form, or an inspector finds recalled products accessible to children, the violation is documented and can trigger enforcement under Texas Human Resources Code Chapter 42, including corrective action plans, administrative penalties, probation or suspension, and emergency closure in serious cases.⁷ Deficiencies also become part of the facility’s public inspection record that parents can look up.

Annual Renewal Checklist

The regulation requires annual certification but doesn’t name a month. Picking a consistent date, either the start of the calendar year or your license anniversary, keeps the review on your calendar and avoids a scramble before an inspection.

Walk every room where children spend time. Check cribs, high chairs, play equipment, toys, car seats, strollers, and anything else used by or around children against the CPSC recall database.
Remove anything recalled that has not been repaired under the manufacturer’s remedy, or isolate it under one of the two exceptions.
Confirm the posted parent and employee notice is still up and still points to a working source for recall information.
Complete every field on a new Form 2885, sign it, and file it where licensing staff can find it.
Verify your CPSC email subscription is still active for the right categories so you catch new recalls between annual reviews.

1
Texas Health and Human Services. Form 2885 Children’s Products Certification
2
Cornell Law Institute. 26 Texas Administrative Code 746.4135 – What Are My Responsibilities Regarding Unsafe Children’s Products in My Child-Care Center?
3
Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers
4
CPSC.gov. Recalls and Product Safety Warnings
5
Texas Health and Human Services. Form 2885 Children’s Products Certification
6
Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Licensed and Registered Child-Care Homes
7
Texas Public Law. Texas Human Resources Code Title 2 Subtitle D Chapter 42 – Regulation of Certain Facilities, Homes, and Agencies