Vote for the Change You Wish to See The November 2020 elections are crucial to the current and future well-being of Arkansas’s children and families. Arkansas voters will elect candidates to the Arkansas General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Presidency. These policymakers will have the power to pass and influence public policies that […]

Common-sense approach to ensuring corporations pay states the taxes they’re owed can help raise state revenue without increasing taxes on everyday families.   In 2019, the Arkansas General Assembly passed legislation that required sellers outside of Arkansas to collect and pay sales taxes on all purchases made by buyers in Arkansas. This “online sales tax” […]

Arkansans kicked off Arkansas Works health insurance should reapply for coverage. In our third and final brief examining the work reporting requirements placed on Arkansas Works Medicaid enrollees, we find confusion, complications and long-lasting consequences of the now-disallowed policy. More than 18,000 low-income Arkansans lost their health insurance between September 1 and December 31, 2018, for failing to […]

by John Cook, Ph.D., M.A.Ed., Research Scientist and Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch; Richard Sheward, MPP, Deputy Director of Innovative Partnerships, Children’s HealthWatch; Bruno Showers, Senior Policy Analyst, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families; and Eduardo Ochoa, Jr., MD, Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and Children’s HealthWatch conducted a Health Impact Assessment to estimate […]

Our annual Finish Line report looks at the status of health care coverage for Arkansas’s children and families. The report examines changes over the years and recommends actions to get Arkansas to The Finish Line: 100 percent coverage of Arkansas’s kids. Alarmingly, the data show a reversal in the trend of increasing coverage of children […]

Over a thousand bills were passed during the 2019 General Assembly. Do you know how they will impact kids? From major juvenile justice reform to protecting the minimum wage increase, and to banning corporal punishment in schools for children with certain disabilities, our Kids at the Capitol 2019 Legislative Summary covers it. Read about the […]

The year 2018 was one of forward-thinking for AACF. A major focus for our organization was developing a new five-year strategic plan to guide our work in the future. Among the priorities in our new plan are a greater focus on race equity: what policies are disproportionately harmful to Arkansans of color, and what can […]

Thousands of Arkansans who aren’t required to work to be eligible for Medicaid are losing their coverage because they failed to report or report adequately their exemption.

We can close the educational achievement gap for low-income students by spending more wisely.

Many Arkansas public schools still use ineffective and discriminatory school discipline policies. As a member of the state’s Task Force on School Discipline, Arkansas Advocates calls for more effective, research-based options to help improve outcomes for kids and schools.