From the Arkansas Advocate:
The Arkansas Department of Education accepted most of a task force’s recommendations to sustain the state’s financial assistance program for low-income families to access child care.
The department’s announcement came in a letter to providers on Monday, two days after the agency was set to change the School Readiness Assistance program’s reimbursement rate structure.
The state Early Childhood Commission convened the task force of child care experts last month and voted last week to approve the group’s recommendations to make the program sustainable.
“These updates are not just policy adjustments; they are a continued commitment to strengthen early child care and education in Arkansas, to invest in quality, and to remove barriers for working families,” said Ashelyn Abney, interim director of the department’s Office of Early Childhood, in Monday’s letter.
Child care providers raised the alarm in September that the agency’s plan to change both the reimbursement rates and families’ copayments would make child care unaffordable for families and unsustainable for providers.
Agency officials said the changes were necessary to keep the financial aid program afloat, but providers said increased copayments effective Oct. 1 had already forced parents to remove their children from child care and facilities to close due to lost income.
Additionally, the federal government shut down Oct. 1 and has yet to reopen, blocking access to the bulk of the state’s federal funding that supports the School Readiness Assistance program.
The education department accepted a recommended new reimbursement rate structure that will cost nearly $77 million through Sept. 30, 2026, if it continues that long, according to figures the task force presented last week. The education department had recommended a plan that would cost $70 million over the same period of time.
The department accepted three more recommendations:
- Eligible families will no longer have a 72-month limit on their access to the School Readiness Assistance program;
- Families with multiple children will be charged copayments at the same percentage of their base rate for each child’s age group;
- Parents in eligible families must work or attend school a minimum of 30 hours per week, an increase from 20 hours and a reversal of a 2024 policy change.
The department is still considering whether to eliminate copayments for families under 60% of the state median income and set a maximum copayment cap, according to a memo sent to providers Monday.
“This change may increase program costs by $5-7 million, and a phased approach will be considered if funding allows,” the memo states.
Abney’s letter to providers emphasized that the Office of Early Childhood sought to make changes “where there is alignment, feasibility and urgency” and recognized that “not every recommendation can be implemented overnight.”
