According to the National Institute for Early Education Research’s annual report, total pre-K enrollment in Arkansas followed a national trend in 2013, declining slightly. The state ranks 14th for 4-year-old enrollment, reaching 33 percent of those eligible.* Last...
At Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, we’ve been working for many years to ensure that all children have health coverage here in our state. Our latest report, Crossing into New Territory: Kids’ Health Coverage in 2014, outlines...
There are a quarter of a million working moms in Arkansas who, just like your mom, deserve thanks for the sacrifices they make for their kids. As a state we’ve made huge strides to help working moms support...
The battle for broadband in our schools is on. Broadband is the fiber cabling that allows schools to connect to the internet, to the Arkansas Department of Education and to have enough bandwidth in their schools to run administrative...
Good news and bad news in the latest state revenue report from the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA).The April revenue summary released today by DFA revealed an anticipated decrease in net general revenue for the month. April net...
Since last fall, nearly 25,000 children now have health coverage through ARKids First, Medicaid, or private insurance – a dramatic increase. The bump in the number of children with insurance is a direct result of Arkansas’s bipartisan Private Option...
As Arkansas begins to develop its state budget priorities for the 2015 legislative session, it would do well to take note of the major investments that some of our neighboring states have made in young children. Take the case...
Youth detention must be utilized carefully to make sure low-level, non-violent youthful offenders do not move deeper into the criminal justice system. A new report by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families says juvenile detention – the short-term involuntary...
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education reports that students of color experience more suspensions, poorer quality teachers, and have access to fewer advanced math and science courses. The findings, released March 14, 2014...
The majority of state revenue sources came in higher than expected last month, according to the Department of Finance and Administration’s March revenue summary. The overall year-to-date collections for 2014 are leveling out at just a few percentage...