5 things you should know about the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) 1. Both sides of the aisle are singing the praises of EITC programs. Since its inception, the EITC has received broad bipartisan approval because it supports working Americans and has been the most effective measure ever enacted to help families leave poverty behind. 2. Without […]

Children who participate in pre-K, particularly low-income children, are better prepared for kindergarten.

The uncertainty and instability of foster care can take an emotional toll on children, one that grows with time. Approximately a quarter of the children who entered the foster care system over a fi ve-year period stayed in foster care for one to three years. Arkansas is looking for ways to reduce the amount of […]

The consumer enrollment experience provides an important perspective for improving eligibility determination and successful enrollment in coming years. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) worked with three in-person assister (IPA) sites across Arkansas to collect data reported voluntarily by consumers and assisters to inform improvements to the consumer experience. The results of 823 consumer […]

Common Core standards are benchmarks of what students know and should be able to do at every grade level.

Kids can’t vote and don’t write checks to campaigns, but they are still affected by decisions made by elected officials. Today’s candidates, if elected, will cast votes that will shape the well-being and opportunities available to Arkansas children. You have the opportunity to be their voice.

Every year, the Annie E. Casey Foundation releases the Kids Count Data Book, a comprehensive, 50-state look at child welfare. Arkansas made gains in health coverage and education over the last year, but the child poverty rate went up to 29 percent. Those ups and downs are consistent with national trends, but what would it […]

Poverty guidelines play two important roles, they are a scorecard for how we are doing as a state, and they help determine eligibility for dozens of programs that low-income Arkansans rely on. Here’s why they are out of date.

Too many children enter foster care for a very short period of time. Removal from the home and placement in foster care can be a traumatic experience for a child, and the state is looking at ways to serve these children in their homes. Nearly one third (30 percent) of children who enter Arkansas’s foster […]

When you fill up your car at the gas station, you pay a motor fuel tax that directly benefits the Highway Department Fund. If a relative from out of state visits and pays for a hotel room in Arkansas, he or she pays a two percent tourism tax that directly credits the Tourism Development Fund. […]