Our key ally in Arkansas is Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, an organization that provides leadership, research, and advocacy to promote wide-ranging reforms that improved the lives of Arkansas children and their families. Their work includes advancing children’s health, early education, and family economic security.
State early childhood policy progress is dependent both on the state’s policy environment and the numerous efforts — by those listed on this page and many others — who worked both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.
Research shows that family economic security is foundational to children’s overall wellbeing. Research also shows that widespread disparities in opportunity (especially by race) drive wide disparities in outcomes. States with policies that offer strong support to young children and their families are more likely to see 1) declining numbers of children in low-income households and 2) low racial disparity among those children.
Young Children in Low-Income Households: Declining
Approximately 53% (175,000) of the state’s children 0-8 live in households below 200% FPL (2021). This number represents a decrease from 55% (188,000) in 2016.1
Racial Disparity Among Young Children Living in Low-Income Households: High
Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native children aged 0-8 are significantly more likely to be living in households below 200% FPL than are Asian and non-Hispanic White children.2
State General Fund Appropriations: Growing
Arkansas’ fiscal 2023 state budget totals $6.02 billion, an increase of $175 million, or 2.99 percent, from fiscal 2022 levels. Fiscal 2023 estimated gross general revenues are $7.53 billion while net available general revenues are $6.22 billion, an increase of $352 million, or 6 percent, from fiscal 2022. The budget prioritizes distributions with two categories listed as A and B. The revenue forecast is expected to fully fund both categories.3
Key Revenue Sources:
Political Alignment: Aligned Republican
During the 2023 session, the state’s Senate and House were both Republican controlled. The state’s Governor was also a Republican.4
Types of Ballot Measures Available:5 Five
Key state policy advocacy organizations include:
Early childhood policy advocacy multi-state initiatives present in the state include:4
Highlights from the state’s early childhood policy advocacy community include:7
Act 128 passed and will support pregnant and parenting students by allowing for related excused absences and by giving pregnant and parenting students the flexibility to complete missed school work. Arkansas has the highest teen birth rate in the nation, and this legislation will help reduce high school drop out rates and promote maternal and infant health.
Act 640 creates a state fund for the Imagination Library fund in Arkansas. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library sends an age appropriate book to children registered in the program from birth to 5 years old.
Act 675 will, pending federal approval, allow the Arkansas Department of Human Services to set Arkansas’s asset limit for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, previously known as “food stamps”) to the federal rate and will allow a family whose assets exceed that level a temporary limit of $5,500 for one year.
Act 490 requires that all newborns be screened at birth for medical conditions as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Alliance’s lead grantee in Arkansas, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, is working to advance early childhood policies in several areas that align with the Alliance’s birth-through-eight policy framework:
Child Care
Child Care Workforce
K-3rd Grade
Preschool and Pre-K
Maternal Health
Infant & Child Health
Family Economic Security
Click here for more information on advocates’ policy agenda.
Early childhood advocates in Arkansas recently joined forces to empower ECE professionals to influence the use of child care funds from the federal government and to share their stories and ideas with policymakers.
NOTES:
1 Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, November, 2022
2 National Center for Children in Poverty, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, March 2023, NCCP analysis of ACS 1-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2021
3 National Association of State Budget Officers, Summaries of Fiscal Year 2023 Enacted Budgets, September 20, 2022.
4 National Conference of State Legislatures, 2023 State & Legislative Partisan Composition, February 28, 2023.
5 Ballotpedia, Ballot Measures by State, Kids Count Data Center, retrieved May, 2023.
6 Alliance for Early Success, Multi-State Initiatives for Early Childhood Policy Advocacy, April, 2022.
7 Alliance for Early Success, State-Wide Advocacy Highlights Survey, April-August, 2023.
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