Highlights from the state’s early childhood policy advocacy community include:9
After advocating for years to implement presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women, Arkansas achieved this policy win with the passage of the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act (Act 124) during the 2025 legislative session. Advocates are celebrating the fact that expectant moms will be able to be approved for Medicaid coverage quickly based on their income level. This means pregnant women who are applying for the program will have access to critical prenatal care while waiting for their full Medicaid application to be processed. As a result, regardless of backlogs or state agency staff shortages that may exist, women can receive prenatal care sooner rather than later, which is essential to positive infant and maternal health outcomes.
Act 124 also resulted in the passage of other policies that will improve maternal health in Arkansas, including authorizing Medicaid reimbursement for prenatal and postpartum home visitation care by doulas and community health workers. Act 965—a companion piece of legislation to the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act—creates a certification process for community-based doulas in Arkansas, defines the scope of practice for doulas, and also requires other health benefit plans in the state to provide compensation to a certified community-based doula. Act 435, another piece of related legislation, sets out similar requirements specific to Community Health Workers.
Further, Act 124 also will also result in the “unbundling” of Medicaid coverage for pregnant women, which means medical providers will receive separate payments for various prenatal, delivery, and postpartum services rather than a global payment. This should increase the likelihood of medical providers participating in the Medicaid program and, in turn, increase access to prenatal and postpartum services for women covered by Medicaid.
Arkansas celebrated another big win for children during its 2025 legislative session in the passage of Act 123, which mandates that the state provide free breakfast for all public school students, regardless of family income. This is a big step toward reducing hunger in the state, and also improves children’s health and academic achievement. This solution did not come at a small cost. To fund school breakfast for all in Arkansas, the legislature created the Food Insecurity Fund through Act 123 which will be funded through set-aside revenue from medical marijuana taxes. The associated fiscal impact statement estimated a price tag of $14,700,000. This has the ability to impact all K-12 students in Arkansas—or over 474,000 students. Even for those children who already qualified for free lunch, this is an important win as it decreases the stigma sometimes associated with school meals. This was an urgently needed win—Arkansas has the nation’s highest food insecurity rate, and the second highest rate among children.
Act 627, passed during Arkansas’s 2025 legislative session, will be another step in ensuring women have sufficient postpartum support. This Act mandates coverage for breastfeeding and lactation consultant services through the Medicaid Program, as well as other health benefit plans in the state.
Arkansas is also encouraged by the passage of Act 587 which will allow early childhood workers to participate in the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Participation is voluntary but this will allow members of the early childhood education workforce an important opportunity to plan and save for their retirement, as well as gain recognition for their roles as educators.
Act 904, which also passed during the 2025 legislative session, expands maternity leave for public school and open-enrollment public charter school employees to all eligible employees, not just those in participating districts, and shifts the cost to 100 percent paid by the state instead of split between the district and the state.
