Education - House Early Childhood Subcommittee
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- October 2, 2026
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
7:10
OK everybody I think we're gonna go ahead and get started. thank you for your patience we're ready gavelinn thank you guys this meeting is called to order I need a motion to approve the minutes thank you 2cond all in favor Perfect thank you very much so today I'm really excited to have some special guests to give us a couple of reports on some things that are going on
with early childhood throughout the state and and some issues that we may or may not have in the in the legislature with our state program so anyway we appreciate y'all being here and the first presentation will be from Arkansas Headstart and the early headadart program from Angela Bblankenship and Angela is the headadart collaboration office director with the with the Arkansas Department of Education and ana when you get to the table if you will press your mic and just introduce yourself for
the record and then begin your presentation and we'll ask questions when you're done. and thank you for being here
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
8:23
thank you for allowing me to share about Headart today so I did send my presentation over but I'm not sure it got put in to the system this morning so OK all right well
Speaker 17
8:42
I can talk without a picture if if that's
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
8:46
ok with you? OK so thank you all again for allowing me to speak about headadart my name is Angela I do have it's fine it's fine I can just go ahead without it just to save everyone some time. agenda OK Sure, OK
so my name is Angela Blankenship. I am the headadart State collaboration director and I want to share with you today a little bit about the structure of headadstart, the funding streams and how Headart connects with the state services for early childhood. in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his war on poverty and he shared a statement saying that the children in poverty should not be poverty's captives
Shortly thereafter sergeant Shriver took the lead and he assembled in a panel of experts on early childhood development and created a comprehensive program that would meet the community's needs to serve children in in poverty in the summers of 1965 and 1966, the officefice of Economic Opportunity launched an eightweek project called Project Headart.
we're very fortunate in Arkansas that we still have some of our headadart grantees were part of the original headadart project in 1965. Headart was recently reauthorized and under that there were several provisions that set aside to strengthen the quality of headadart. Those included aligning headadart standards with the early learning standards in each state
providing higher qualifications for the workforce in the headadart world and creating state advisory councils we recognize ours in Arkansas is the early childhood commission and then it also included a full review of child outcomes and financial audits Currently headadart is administered at the federal level by the administration for childrenldren and familiesmilies
under the department of Health and Human Services what's unique about Headart in Arkansas and when I refer to headadart the definition that the federal team shares with us is headadart meaning birth to age ive. the the model serves a federal to local model so all of the funding received by headadart grantees for headadart services is given directly from the administration for
childrenldren and familiesmilies the current total funding amount is $128,351,000 with the number of children served at6,449. with 18 different grantees or grant recipients in the state of Arkansas. Again the population served is birth to three for early headadstart and3 to5 for headadart.
The funding flows directly from the federal government and the office of Early Childhood here in the department of Education does not have any role in the funding decisions for that program ig gra n t and seasonal Headart as another funding stream from the federal government and it serves the population of of families and children who are transient farm workers. We do not have any American or native in populations that
are served through that funding stream which is also a federal funding stream so how does headadart meet community needs Again the federal to local model is established based on a community needs assessment that each program must determine what is best for their program specifically. for instance the programs in northwest Arkansas have a greater or different need than those programs that may be located in the delta
the community needs assessment allows the local program to determine the best options set a very strategic plan with program goals over a five year project period. eligible families include those that are at or below the federal poverty guidelines. it also includes eligible families on TAF supplementalcurity income and just most recently in some of the federal changes snap
recipients began can become part of the headadart programme as part of that service what's also unique to headadart is that it prioritizes foster care children enrollment and those children that meet the Mcenny Vino definition of homelessness oftentimes programs don't have enough slots to meet the need of their community and therefore under the federal guidelines must maintain a waiting list
that allows for the most needy children to receive services first what's different about headadart in enrollment and eligibility is that children who receive need to receive the most services are chosen first for enrollment. It is not a first come first serve enrollment process. gra settings again are designed by the headadart programs themselves based on their community needs specifically in Arkansas most of
the programs serve children in a center-based setting some have homebas settings where the provider goes out to the home area and there may be some locally designed programs based on what that community feels is important so what makes headadart different from every other early childhood program in this state or even in the nation Well, the early learning program is designed that has the family
is the central core of what we do Early learning and development is the important foundation for programs building strong relationships as the foundational driver for what happens in a program they engage families as the first and most important educator for their child they develop and implement effective practices that are around the five key areas of development that we know is approached to
learning, social emotional development, language and literacy, cognition and physical development. all of that is is constructed through a a playbas setting which is also structured around high quality instructional materials. a unique portion of what Headart does is an ongoing screening assessment of that child that's enrolled in the program to ensure that all services that are that the child should be
receiving can be accessed Headart also requires a 10% in at least a 10% enrollment of children with disabilities. Another unique factor in headadart is the health and wellness piece that sets us apart from many other early childhood programs and that every child within the first30 days of enrollment is ensured that they have a medical
home, a dental home and health insurance from there all children receive a medical dental, physical, hearing vision and behavioral screening within the first45 days of enrollment healthal and hygiene are critical part of the daily routine of young children and their families and families are also supported in assisting in receiving mental health services throughout the state
Family wellbeing again being the central component of what sets headadart aside from most programs many strategies and parent supports are shared with families and also links to community services during pregnancy and beyond to ensure that families well-being is met oftentimes and as required under the federal mandate programs must assist families in
identifying and reaching their own individual goals those goals may be related to finances and economic mobility housing, employment and education the headadart programs even provide a career pathway to early care and education nationwide 25% of program staff are actually former headadart parents. Family engagement being a
central part also allows programs to support families in in the male caregiver and father engagement initiatives and helping parents become lifelong advocates for their children and a unique platform for leadership through the policy council. that is another federal mandate for the program. so program management what does that look like for headadarts what's different compared to
Arkansas early learning programs Headartgra performance standards are those standards that define the criteria and the minim requirements that the federal guidelines under the headad Start Act for programs to carry out. They serve as the foundation for headadart programme's mission to deliver a comprehensive highquality program there is a unique program support network that's
divided into three specific distinct functions one of those is the nationalents and they promote excellence through building capacity of programs in researchbas information the regional technical assistance Network provides targeted training and technical assistance for each program or a group of grantees. and the third level is each grant recipient from the federal level receives funding in their
notice of award that is specifically earmarked for training and technical assistance. so how do we ensure that Headart is meeting the needs of the federal guidelines compliance monitoring is a very strong component of headadart. we want to ensure that children's health and safety are protected and that there's effective oversight of the program Each year in the fall the office of headadart at the federal
level provides an information memo that explains the entire monitoring process for the upcoming year. Each program grantee will receive at least3 federal reviews during a five year grant cycle. annually in august all had start programs report out the program information report which is a series of demographic information data program statistics and general information on enrollment needs
of the state and community areas. so how how do we wrap up what headadart looks like compared to what all early childhood programs in our state have to offer since 1965 Headar across this nation is serve40 million children and families and we know from all of that long term service and the research collected that children who are enrolled in headadart
programs are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college They have improved social and emotional and behavioral development and are actually better prepared to be a parent than those children who did not attend the program. there's a broad pattern of research that shows the impact for children over time but most importantly we see a lot of economic benefits begin
to emerge once that child rees adulthood. coupled with the design process the researchbas quality comprehensive services Headstart has the power to change the trajectory of not only a child's life but the family involved thank you you have any questions for me wow that's a lot of information for sure and thank you so
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
22:40
much and for taking on the role we appreciate it
questions looks likepresentative you know I always have questions love it thank you
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
22:51
and I wish that we had the the papers we'll get them eventually but I was trying to jot down notes the whole time you were talking getting as many things as I could so I guess one of the things that we've heard a lot about is
some federal funding that's hurt some of this so have have we seen any cuts federally for headadart.
Has that happened at all? Is is that a part of any of this
Speaker 25
23:22
cut anything that's going on I should say well there is there is currently
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
23:28
a notice of proposed rule change that has been presented in the federal registry is open for public comment until October 9th and it has specific issues that are addressed for headadart programs how those changes will affect Headart
programs. I don't have the exact information on that because again, each program's community needs assessment could be affected differently based on those those particular proposed rule changes. OK so when you started out
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
24:02
if I wrote it down correctly, currently Arkansas we get 128 million yes 128
Speaker 27
24:07
million and and that's been 128 million do you know for how long has that that number
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
24:20
changes annually based on the grant recipient's request and again that's based on the community needs assessments annually. OK.
Speaker 25
24:26
but you don't know what that maybe was the year before that or the I mean off the top of annual that p's a
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
24:34
lot of information to yes that information can be found
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
24:38
in the annual PRR that is reported out by Headstart in the fall of every year. So if we needed a comparison we could go back and look at that OK and just to see
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
24:52
how many children you know had been serviced before and are we still providing I think, I think I wrote down6,439 children so you know has it been that amount for how many years that is one of the lower amounts
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
25:09
compared to the last few years and that is based on the fact that there were some rule changes in 2024 and programs across the state made the decision to make changes within their grant.
What were those rule changes that affected of the rule changes that came out had to do with wage parity for headadart staff and having wage parity for
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
25:37
public schools can you explain that to me a little bit more?
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
25:45
Well again it's based on the headadart Act and also the the rule changes that came out in 2024.
and so those have to be aligned with the state standards for each state and so when the Learns Act came out and made the change for a certified teacher in the base salary for that Headart was given all head starts across the nation were given7 years to make a change in their policies and procedures so that staff it that had the same qualifications who worked in headad Start would have wage
parity to the public school. so a preschool teacher is
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
26:28
making the same through headadstart it's making the same the50,000 dollars minimum is what you're telling me. it's possible that would have to be you would have
Speaker 25
26:39
to look at the data for each location and I don't have that
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
26:44
information OK but because the wage went up higher that made it harder to service as many children? am I
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
26:56
well the funding didn't change for programs from the federal level. so the funding remained the same but the need to meet the federal guideline changed so programs had to make some different decisions in applying for their grants. so less
Speaker 25
27:11
children were getting the services that's possible for some programs yes. OK just trying to connect all
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
27:19
the dots and trying to understand the big picture that's what what
this committee is doing we're trying to make
sure that we've got all cards on the table and we can see all the moving parts
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
27:32
but again those are decisions based at the federal level and and programs make those decisions on their own community needs and communicate that at the federal level and then the federal office of headad Start makes the decision on how to fund that program OK but I think many of us
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
27:51
are excited that our teachers are being paid more because they they deserve that. so but the the unintended
consequences that may be some children that could have gotten services no longer can because the the money's not there to support them. and do you mind if I ask another question? I'm sorry. or I I mis I'll I'll letpresentative Brown and I'll come back. I'll let her. I'd
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
28:13
talked for a lot Representative Brown thank you madam chairir.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
28:20
Miss Blankenship, I appreciate the report it's very thorough and covered a lot of material.
umm a couple of questions I had when you were given your report you talked about the needs assessment and how what might be required in northwest Arkansas might be different than what's required in the delta so that you can put my worry to to bed and to sleep we're still I'd like to know what the kind of needs assessment that would be I mean we're still helping
the children in both areas achieve academic success yes for for
for their the expectations or standards for their age yes the
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
29:09
federal the federal guidelines require that each program set child outcomes reports based on their the children that they serve and so those standards are federally set
Speaker 25
29:21
and so that stays the same thank you and then one other
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
29:30
thing you made a statement about the children in headad Start of going on to college and have achieve more than versus children who don't now when you say children who don't is that children across the board or is that low income children or how what
did that mean? that is a research provided by the officefice
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
29:54
of Headart and I can provide you more detailed information on the comparison of that.
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
30:09
are my questions Thank you. I've got a couple of questions. First of all these these assessments the annual assessments how can we get a how can we get
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
30:20
a look at those are you referring to the child assessment or the programmes program assessments those are available on headadstart.gov. OK and it is called the pIR report
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
30:42
then kind of on the same line aspresentative Mayberry's questions. my question is how many children are we missing? So how many are actually eligible and we're not getting to them for for whatever reason I don't have the answer to that
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
31:04
question. I think that is part of the work that I'll be doing in collaboration with the state officefice of Early Childhood as we continue to work with the local leads together to identify who needs services in our state and how best to serve
Speaker 14
31:18
them. Great, great. thank you very much and I think that's part of the
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
31:23
that's part of the issue across the board and something that we're really wanting to help with that so as you think about ways that the state
can help let us know about that and we we may hear in the next report how many kids are being left out not just from headadart but across the board and what we can do to help uhpresentative Mayberrry thank you the one thing that
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
31:53
were saying with Headstart is that it fall it sounds like it follows the child all the way through graduation into adulthood, correct? There is
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
32:01
there is trajectory and long term outcome reports that have
been done over the over time in different programs, yes. so that child that was in
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
32:12
headadart do you mean that when they are graduating high school that they're filling out another assessment or is this just based on what they, I mean explain to me a little
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
32:24
bit more those again those projects were collected that evidence and research that was done at at the federal level and those children were comparatively over the years where they have tracked children
at different time periods so it's not a continual tracking of of the child we do a transition effort between current children that are leaving Headart and going into the public school and that again is continued work within each state to ensure that there's a collaboration and a systems development to be able to support the data that we're collecting to show how Headart is is performing and and do you have any more I
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
33:10
mean you gave us a little bit of that information but do you have more that you
can share as we talk about the importance of prevention starting at the earliest stages of life I think there's many of us here who are just saying this is where we really need to start and so but but we hear others say oh it doesn't really make a difference or it's not needed and so I'm kind of asking well where's the research that that it does make a difference and again that's some of the work
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
33:36
that the national centers do as part of that program
performance support network so we can access some of that research through Headstart.gov so I can get more information for you any research to support it is
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
33:54
greatly appreciated and and wanted I guess I've asked lots of questions so thank you thank you Representative Brown thank you again.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
34:06
I was curious on in the0 to3 h group
are like are the newborns who identifies did the parents need to apply for the headadart
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
34:24
program? OK parents apply for the headadart or early headadart program and in the early Headart program the birth to to re population some slots can be reserved for pregnant mothers so that they're supported for that prenatal care and then their child would receive ongoing headadart early headadart services once the child is born but the parent
must make application to the program. Now would the
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
34:51
child let's say the mother and the father are both working or want to work so then that child could go into a headadartent be dropped off each day or they could receive services in the home right so if they are a working parent and again if it's if the
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
35:17
program has chosen to be a center-based program the parents are expected to have the child at the program daily for the set program hours. if the model that has been funded by the federal government is a home-based model then the parents would receive support services in the home based on
Speaker 59
35:39
on that criteria that's set within that that program grant. when it comes to receiving
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
35:47
services in the home is it simply a matter of guiding the
parents on things that they can do or are you know physical resources
like colorful toys and activities are are actual physical items provided for the
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
36:05
child. It's a combination of both a a homebased provider would go into the home, type materials, help parents choose the the appropriate materials for their children they
are things that parents can use they help them utilize things within their home that would provide again more developmentally appropriate experiences for their children They model for the parent appropriate interactions with children in those settings and help provide ongoing resources whether it's information connecting them with community activities and providing socialization opportunities at a central location
periodically. on der thank you you're welcome Representative Mayberry
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
37:02
I still have more. I'm sorry. OK, so the maternal mortality rate in this state I I I I'm seeing you you nod right away you you know that there's a an issue in the state of Arkansas. So is this one other source of a way that we could get to
our highestrisops before there's a problem and explain to me how how that would work and is there anything that you know this is federal funding so is there anything statewise that we can do to help support that
because if if it's just one more avenue we want to do what we
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
37:44
can all headadart programs under the federal guidelines under the headad Start Act and in the programme performance standards are required to establish memorandum of understanding with
local community and state resources so that families can have some type of reciprocal service opportunities if need be. Headar is one avenue that would be connected to local or state services whether it's through a a reciprocal referral process or a service that can be provided in the community for those families that they can be prioritized for those services so typically these are moms that maybe they have a two year old
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
38:28
that's already in the headadart program. momm gets pregnant again and that's who you're trying to help assist with services
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
38:37
that could be one way it could be that there's been a memorandum of understanding at a local medical clinic and the physician sees a pregnant mom and maybe she's not had any prenatal care and she's 8 months pregnant then that person might refer that parent to the headadart program or early headadart
Speaker 25
39:00
program to possibly receive services just one
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
39:04
more avenue as we try to also solve that issue in the state of Arkansas one more
thing to look at that we already have people in place they just perhaps need a little bit more of a resource to help. so thank
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
39:20
you We're small but mighty for sure umpresentative Brown the more we talk
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
39:24
the more questions I have are there
criteria that would prevent a child who might otherwise be eligible say could there be criminal convictions or or just any kind involvement with the legal system that could prevent a child from being eligible based on their parents's background or record
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
40:03
a child is eligible based on the eligibility requirement for income or if they fall under any of those services that are listed such as SsI, Tanna foster care, homelessness, all of those are eligibility criteria. Each headadart program must create a selection criteria for their area for enrollment in their program and every every one of the questions on
their selection criteria sets a particular scale of point systems and that allows the child to be prioritized in the program some programs may be located near you know a facility and and they have parents a lot of the parents are incarcerated. sometimes that that is a higher point system depending on that
Speaker 14
41:00
program selection criteria thank you very much
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
41:08
I've got a quick question and I'll come back to you Representative Mayberry kind of along the same lines with the criteria of recruitment tell me how the 10% with disabilities works is is that something that happens generically pretty much or do you go out and look for families with developmental delays or is that just3 to5 or is it it's for like it's for both the early headadar and the headad start
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
41:38
and they have to be reported separately to the federal government as far as the percentage criteria the experiences that we typically have in Arkansas is that it happens organically yep yep. children that first45 days of enrollment and all of those assessments need to be completed most of the time programs will be able to meet their 10% enrollment criteria within that first45 days that would have
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
42:09
been my guess. OK, great. thank you. Representative Maybeberry. thank you. I
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
42:14
promise this will be the last set. back to the maternal mortality rate and
and just my thoughts there. So our other early childhood education programs obviously don't do that they don't not that I'm aware of. they don't connect moms and the children to primary care doctors and all that and I'm just thinking out loud that
here we have these connections to these new moms and very young children and possibly even you know a mom getting ready to have another child and just thinking big picture is that a way that we can help in other areas by by having some of our other programs not to give them more to do but combine resources instead of everyone working in their own
little silos that we we has that ever been discussed? Has
that ever been talked about? do you work with
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
43:19
other the AC program for example that is part of the role that I have as a headadart collaboration director my job is systems coordination so that I can be a liaison between that program if their program has a high special needs rate. how can we connect that
program to the state resources so that every family is getting as many possible resources available to them to meet their need. that is a mandate under the headadartgrame performance standardsystem collaboration is required not only from the higher level
Speaker 25
43:58
at the at the director level that I'm at, but the local level as well. so a child in
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
44:11
that didn't qualify for the headadar that might be in an ABC you're saying
could have access to that? Is that would well
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
44:22
for instance if the child is in headadart and maybe that the parents have have made economic gains and now that the child is no longer eligible based on income guidelines, there would be an intern or an external referral to possibly an ABC program or a
school readiness program within the state but again connecting those families to resources is exactly the model that Headstart has.
Speaker 25
44:50
OK but not the opposite the child who's
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
44:54
in ABC no one's asking that child in ABC like you're asking do you have a primary care doctor or do you have a dentist? do you have the ABC
programme program policies are quite
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
45:12
distinct and different from the headadart programme policies and procedures. One is that a state level and one is at the
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
45:21
federal level but I'm just thinking if there could be some crossover that maybe we can do two for one, you know, I mean help out more problems
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
45:29
and and there is there is an opportunity for for instance the school readiness if if the parent is working I believe you mentioned thatpresentative Brown and the headadar day ends that child could also be served under the school readiness
afterschool program so that the child gets a full day of service so the parents can remain in the workforce. So those are some of the examples of what might be happening in in in utilizing the multiple s resources Thank you we were just
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
45:59
saying it's mind boggling to try to coordinate all of this. so thank you for your for your taking on the responsibility of doing that. I've got one more question
and I'm I'm not sure that you can answer it so much but this new rule change that the public comment is still out through april or or throughoctober 9th or one of the concerns that I've heard is that the very thing that makes headadart so great and that is the quality of the program could be impacted by the changes in this rule and I don't know whether you can personally say what you think or whether the the national organization
has opinions on what's going on but is there anything that we can advocate with our federal folks, or any concerns that you have that we need to be advocating with our federal folks about this rule
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
47:00
change. what's important to remember in my role is that my job is to to educate you on what stands for headadart. I've shared with you today what our standards are, what we're tasked to do as a headadart nation and when federal changes are
proposed it is it is important that everyone in that is connected to headadart or possibly connected to headadart. Read through those not the proposed rule changes in particularly how it affects each program locally to to make a blanket statement would be incorrect because changes are different based on the community needs and the strategic plan that each program has. So I
couldn't say specifically what how the effects would
Speaker 25
47:51
be for headadarts in Arkansas but they would be different for each program. thank you and and I know that your
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
48:01
position is a little bit different than the national organization that has the organization put out any comments about about the rule change or or their yes they have the
Speaker 25
48:11
national Headart association has comment inca and you can access that for me great thank you very much
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
48:20
any other questions? I have one more actually and that is as advocates for early childhood across the state is there anything knowing that Headart is a federal funded program is there anything that this committee can do to help make sure that we're collaborating or that all of our children are getting what they need. with especially with the headadart program is there
anything that we can do for you basically is what I'm asking
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
48:54
I think the most important thing for us to remember is that we all have the goal of serving the children and families in Arkansas to the best of our ability and having my role in the office of early childhood allows the cross section and collaboration to continue Great. and and while you're here thank you for the office of
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
49:15
OEC for being here even though I know a lot of the department is out of
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
49:21
town so thank you guys for being here and thank you for your collaboration with with with us and with stakeholders and with these other organizations. thank you for that Angela thank you so much thank you for doing what you're doing and for letting us know and please keep us informed before you go we'll make sure that we get slidesir so that we can get those passed out to everybody this is just the subcommittee but the education committee will get, will get all of this information as well so thank you very much appreciate you
and our next presentation is a report from Appleseedsgan organization Anaorchetti and Ana if you would introduce yourself for the record and then you can get get on with your presentation and then we will ask questions at the end unless I see somebody pop up something that they just can't wait for that sounds wonderful. Well thank you madam
Speaker 97
50:22
chair and committee members for the opportunity to
present today. My name is Annamorechetti and I'm a policy director with Arkansas Appleseed Legal Justice Center and I'm excited to get to discuss our school readiness report that was published last week that examines early childhood education policies and in this presentation I will highlight our early education in Arkansas today and how we got here what the current system costs and the ROI and policy options that aim to support the
early childhood education system. Arkansas has built a strong mixed delivery system that gives families options when it comes to publicly funded early childhood education but the system is under financial pressure which I know you have been discussing for the past year c cor ding to the state of preschool 2025 report that was published by the National Institute for Early Education Research. In the2425 school year Arkansas better chance served
just over 20,000 children which represented 19% of three year olds and33% of four year olds in Arkansas and these are strong enrollment percentages that show Arkansas's commitment to early education, but there is still a large gap between children served and children who could benefit. The Arkansas Department of Education released a report in 2023 that estimates that 120,000 children birth to age ive are
eligible for publicly funded care and education but only about38,000 are enrolled and that means there are more than 81,000 eligible children who are not participating in publicly funded programs. There are obviously many reasons for that but the size of the gap indicates that we need to build enough capacity to make quality early learning available for more Arkansas families. as you know the Arkansas legislature established the AC
program in 91 which included centerbased programs, home visiting programs and family childcare homes and then in 2003 Arkansas a better chance for school success was created with additional focus on children ages3 and4 who face educational and economic challenges and then last session A504 merged ABC and ABCss creating one unified program with the same eligibility criteria.
one of the most compelling sections of the report is the quality pre-K money that can be saved later in a child's K-1el education. So the Arkansas Research Center examined students who received free school lunch and compared those who participated in ABC pre-K with those who did not and for students who attended AC Arkansas public schools spent an average of73,600 per student to reach li ter ac y proficiency by third
grade and 85,100 per student for those who did not participate in ABC and that difference of 11,500 per student is substantially larger than the annual ABC cost per child. The Arkansas Research Center also reported 2 dollars37 cents in cost savings for every $1 spent on ABCre-Ky the time the student reaches3rd grade. that return increases to $2.85 by fourth grade and3 dollars 10 cents by fifth grade.
one of the biggest challenges identified in the report is ABc funding which has been stagnant over the past decade when you adjust for inflation state ABC funding has been on the decline which is putting pressure on providers to do more with less the federal recovery dollars that were used to help fund ABC are now exhausted, which means ABC faces a funding decrease that needs to be replaced with sustainable state investment.
ABC operates on a60% state funding and40% local match model that local match can come from school districts, donated facility usage, volunteers other inkind contributions. The local match can create a geographic inequities because not every county or provider has the same economic resources a wealthy community and a struggling rural community don't necessarily have the same ability to generate that match.
it's vital that the funding conversation includes educators pay and according to theenter for the studyy of childcare Employment, Arkansas had an estimated 16,700 people working in the early childhood sector in 2022. with a median wage of 11 dollars4 cents per hour while the state's living wage for a single adult at that same time was 14 dollars34 cents per hour. Those in the early childhood
education workforce are4 times more likely to live in poverty than elementary and middle school teachers. A2022uAMs workforce study found that over half respondents reported difficulty paying basic household expenses 4 in 10 reported running out of food or skipping meals because of financial instability and almost half reported using some form of financial assistance such assnap, WI or Medicaid. so there are four broad policy
options for strengthening Arkansas's early childhood education system that I will just briefly review Arkansas Early childhood educators need incentives for completing an early childhood degree program as well as supporting a career pathway from a child development associate degree to to a degree in early education. with the step up to wages salary supplement programme ending in 2025, Arkansas should consider supporting low wage earners in the early childhood education
field with a tax credit bill like HB1021 which was sponsored by Representative Ggarner in 25 to provide tiered levels of tax relief to incentivize the completion of additional trainings and degree programs. Arkansas could adjust the childcare assistance program income ig income eligibility rules for early childhood education staff which is similar to what Kentucky has done this policy would address the cost of childcare for the people
who provide it. It's a unique workforce development tool that could be targeted to counties that have early childhood educator staffs shortages the federal teach scholarship program has been very successful in helping early childhood educators gain credentials and degrees and that program could be expanded with state funding. Small private providers do not always have the same opportunities or economies of
scale as pre-K programs that are operating in a public school setting and we're interested in a sliding scale approach to the ABC local match requirements particularly for rural counties, childcare deserts and communities with high levels of poverty. Arkansas could also extend ABC provider contracts from 1 to 2 years to reduced administrative burdens. Arkansas would benefit greatly from a centralized data
reporting for early childhood education to accurately assess public and private enrollment across the state. in the 2425 school year,53% of Arkansas's four year old population was enrolled in publicly funded early childhood education and that includes AC special education and headadart. Arkansas could make every four year old eligible for ABC participation when looking at enrollment
growth projections for a universal pre-K4 access model. we examined 11 states that have both the universal pre-K for access and a mixed delivery model like ours and the average pre-K4 participation rate across those states is63% for four year old population. So if Arkansas reached that rate of enrollment, it would require approximately4,268 additional
ABC pre-Kfo slots which at the current rate would cost approximately 21.8 million annually. c according to Ne Arkansas ranks 2sixth in the nation for state preca spending per child. The current ABC rate is5,105 per student per year or about $28 per day based on a 178 dayy school year the school readiness assistance program which is federally
funded has a base reimbursement rate of33 dollars per day for a pre-K student. If Arkansas brought the ABC rate up to that SRA benchmark, it would be an additional769 per student per year which would require 15.6 million more annually and that would raise the ABC rate to5,874 dollars per student which is still far below near's
national average of 8,124 per student. Last November, Arkansas replaced its previous six levels of quality-based reimbursement structure with three payment levels that you can see on the slide reverting back to the previous six level reimbursement structure would improve reimbursement rates for providers and incentivize quality enhancements. Arkansas has more than three decades of experience with an established mixed delivery
system but the system is facing real pressures. Funding has not kept pace with inflation, federal recovery dollars have expired. Early childhood educators learned substant earn substantially less than comparable K-12 educators and thousands of eligible children remain outside publicly funded early learning programs so investing in school readiness is an investment in Arkansas's children but it's also an investment in Arkansas's schools workforce and economy. thank you for your time
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
1:01:36
and once again that is a lot of information that we certainly appreciate it any questions Representative Mayberry way
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:01:47
s so the report didn't get too
much into the number of facilities that we have around the state or how many may have closed or are on the verge of closing. do you all have any information to share along that lines for that
data, I think what has been shared with this
Speaker 97
1:02:07
committee in the past is really focused on the SRA funding changes and how that has affected those providers and so I would need to dig a little bit to see for AC providers what that change has been since that is in that separate funding bucket so that is something I could look into and but I guess in your in your studies in your research, have you talked
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:02:29
to providers that are saying, you know, I used to be able to get by and now we're we're hanging
on a shoestring. I don't know how we're going to pay the bills next month. I don't know how we're going to do this. are you hearing that? are
Speaker 97
1:02:46
you experiencing that? and that I think would be a wonderful question for providers I was really focused on the the research data component of it so I think they would be able to provide some insight into that. OK I'll let someone else
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:03:03
think I think Representative Mayberry that this is just kind of a a
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
1:03:09
gathering of data so that we have a place to start to get those kinds of questions answered and there's a lot of it here so thank you for that any other questions yer I'll ask
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:03:31
more questions if there wasn't somebody else OK so I'm gonna go back to kind of the first little section here and if I'm reading correctly, um, where
was the chart? you said there was 120,000 where is that? 120,000 children who who are eligible who qualify it and and that there's only38,000 enrolled so are you telling me that we have 82,000 children in the state of Arkansas that actually could be on a waiting list but their families haven't put them on a waiting list is that is
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:04:10
that what you're saying that the need really is that there's
Speaker 97
1:04:15
82,000 children? Yes so this data right here was presented by the Arkansas Department of Education and so this is their numbers that they have reported from 2023. So looking at how many children would be eligible over all of the different publicly funded special I mean early childhood education programs that we have and how many are currently being served there is
that gap of 81,000 children who were not being served
Speaker 113
1:04:44
so who who would qualify with our current programs but we hear that the list
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:04:50
is only about3,000 or so so I guess there's just families that don't bother to fill
out the paperwork or don't know about the program or that's a that's a big difference in numbers. Well part of so the the figure
Speaker 97
1:05:04
that you mentioned the waiting list the only waiting list that we have data for is
for the SRA program so there is not any data on that that is publicly available for how many children are are waiting for an ABC spot so that I think would be and going back to you know looking at some policy options having a centralized database that you could see you know where are their which counties have children who are eligible for these ABC spots who aren't
getting them. I would imagine it's it's not consistent across counties it's probably varies so but without that that data it's hard to know where those pockets are and you know whether I would imagine there's a lot of childcare deserts in in areas but again without knowing a little bit more about who could be on a waitlist it's hard to to guess where those would land yeah but 82,000 that's that's a lot of of
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:06:16
children and and I guess it did it break it down more as
Speaker 113
1:06:21
to ages is that birth? is that three year
Speaker 97
1:06:25
olds so it did not in terms of the children who are not being currently served it did not break that down by age but if if the on the data from that screen, I don't know if everyone can can see that but from that slide they did break down who is being served by age at this
particular time for this snapshot that you can see a little bit of the breakdown there so I would we would have to see if they could have some data that would break down a little bit more I mean it does look like like if you glance at this there's definitely more three and four year olds being served in those columns then some of the younger children that that's where the greatest need is is in those earliest of
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:07:17
years and and I would assume because it's just harder for our facilities to provide the care at that age because it's less cost effective. the the studentte ratio, just makes it a little bit more costly and and the compensation is just not there so the other thing that you were pointing out was the the wage of the workers and I'm just pointing out the $11 I'm trying to go to that
slide $11 an hour dollars4 cents something like
Speaker 117
1:07:53
that I think was was that average that was yes
Speaker 97
1:07:58
so that was the median wage for early childhood educators from the 2022 data and it is pretty striking to see the difference between that wage and the living wage and then again on that slide looking at the early childhood
education workforce being4 times more likely to live in poverty than elementary and middle school teachers is pretty
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:08:26
striking yeah and and the presentation that we just had from headadstart the requirement that the teachers do make the minimum licensing you know the the standard of the50,000 so that's I would
assume headadart probably doesn't have a problem finding teachers that would be an interesting they probably do have more
qualifications it sounds like they do have to have you know higher certification or maybe bachelor's degree. I I I didn't ask those questions but and I'm assuming that the person making the $11 an hour has minimum qualifications I would need to look back
Speaker 97
1:09:07
and see if they just if they had all early child education staff in one bucket for that 11 dollars4 cents I do have that report
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:09:20
so I can can send that over that's just barely minimum wage you know so and they have such an important job so but I know that these providers are doing what they can to keep their place open and where they can save money they're having to save money and that's on workforce so anyway
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
1:09:51
Thank you. I do want to just make sure I understand. so the 80 the almost 82,000 kids necess are eligible for services but are not receiving services so some of them may be staying home with grandparents or the mother may be staying home. it may not be because they can't get to the services that it could be lots of there are lots of reasons so it could be it could be that they don't have access or they they're in a desert or they don't understand the programs
available but there are there are some other reasons as well and the other thing that I want to make sure that as as we're talking about universal childcare we're talking about the availability or access and you guys did a great job I think making sure that we said that but every time I mention universal not healthcare that too but universal childcare there's an there's an inclination for folks to think it's mandatory and we're not saying mandatory at all we're saying universal access so I just wanted to make sure that
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:10:55
that was that was said here Representative Brown thank you madam
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:11:03
chair when you say eligible is that just children across the state or is this income is there an income
Speaker 97
1:11:13
component to this so I will can definitely pull how the Arkansas Department of Education created this report and the qualifications that they put in it. I would imagine what they
are doing is looking at all the different eligibility requirements for the publicly funded early childhood education programs and looking at state data to see how many would fall into an eligibility bucket for various programs that are listed there in that chart. because it Well I guess we could get
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:11:51
an answer maybe ri s can you help us with that
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
1:11:57
or do you do you know OK will be
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:12:13
accurate OK. But his income is is a determinant of eligibility So both programs are
I think it would be nice if you know there were enough slots for all the kids but even if they aren't in an early childhood education program they could
be getting quality care at home with grandma or mom or
Speaker 127
1:12:51
auntlizzie or whoever, right?rrect and I think
Speaker 97
1:12:55
that's that's a great point because when we were looking at states that are offer offering
universal pre-K4 access with a mixed delivery model. none of them are reaching 100% participation. there will always be parents who have their children at home or who are not choosing to participate in programs so I think even looking at that that large gap of children who are eligible it's not necessarily that the goal is that number but just how large of a gap it is indicates there are definitely children who are eligible who are not
able to receive early education at this time because we just don't have the
Speaker 113
1:13:38
capacity correct all right thank you very much so basically that's about that's about
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
1:13:44
half of the children in Arkansas that are eligible that are not receiving services for whatever reason doesn't mean does it mean they need those services or that we need that many slots but it may mean as one of the things we've talked about in here that we need to make sure that we're getting information to
parents about child development or home visiting or some of the other programs as well so wouldn't you agree? Yes I would. well said
Speaker 80
1:14:13
thank you Representative Mayberry thank you and those
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:14:20
are excellent points and I I hope that I never make it sound like I think every child needs to be in childcare. I, I stayed home with my children. I am in full support of mama raising their their children and being there
and I don't regret a single minute of it. I'm glad I was home. I did work on the side you know always around my children and I'm and I fully support women being at home. So I I don't ever want any of that to ever like make someone think that I think every child needs to be, you know, with someone else during the day. but side note also the the slide it's modernized per student ABC
funding you have raised ABC rate to SRA bench rate well I'm sorry go up one more slide modernize per student ABC funding the first part of it. OK current AB seat that's what I'm looking at.urrent A B C rateid is5105 per student per year. just making note, I think I make note of this every time we have meetings but it's been that rate for a very very like decades and
it used to be more or less aligned with what our per student funding is K12. and every two years ation committee meets there's more funding that K12 funding goes up but this number has stayed stagnant and has stayed the same. and it used to be along the same lines relatively and
even bumping it up to the5874 is your suggestion it's still far from what the K12 funding is for it so I'm I'm just making note of that and would you agree that that is correct assessment. Yes, I think that is one
Speaker 97
1:16:21
of the big highlights from the report is is the need for an investment thank you Any other questions
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:16:36
I think we're good thank you so much for the opportunity Ana thank
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
1:16:43
you very much. thank you guys for the report and for your for your reporting on it today
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:16:49
thank you is there any other business for the seeing no other business we are adjourned thank you all for being here
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration of a Motion to Approve the August 17, 2026, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit B]
C. Update on Arkansas Head Start and Early Head Start - Angela Blankenship, Head Start Collaboration Office Director, Arkansas Department of Education
D. Presentation of “School Readiness: An Examination of Early Childhood Education Policy” [Exhibit D] - Anna Morshedi, Policy Director, Appleseed Legal Justice Center
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — EDUCATION - HOUSE EARLY CHILDHOOD SUBCOMMITTEE, Sep 14, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| EXHIBIT B - Meeting Minutes 08-17-2026 | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| EXHIBIT D - Arkansas Appleseed - School Readiness Report | Exhibit | 31 | Official source ↗ |
| HANDOUT C -- Final Head Start Overview | Exhibit | 5 | Official source ↗ |
| HANDOUT D -- ECE Presentation | Exhibit | 20 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 4
Anna Morshetti
Unverified
Angela Blankenship
Unverified
Speaker 17
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 25
Speaker 27
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
Speaker 54
Speaker 58
Speaker 14
Speaker 61
Speaker 59
Speaker 97
Speaker 110
Speaker 113
Speaker 117
Speaker 127
Speaker 80