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State education officials: about 1,000 Arkansas ABC preschool slots sitting empty while wait lists grow
Summary
Department of Education officials said Arkansas funds roughly 23,800 ABC slots (~$114 million annually) but identified nearly 1,000 annually funded seats that go unfilled while more than 2,000 families wait; the department is moving to pay by enrollment and has notified 28 programs with multi'year underenrollment they may lose slots.
Department of Education officials told a joint legislative education committee that Arkansas'funded early learning seats are not being fully used even as demand rises. "We were one of the states to receive the preschool development grant," Jacob Valleva said, describing a recent federal award intended to support infrastructure and early learning implementation. Valleva and Deputy Commissioner Stacy Smith said the state'funded Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) program currently provides about 23,800 slots and receives roughly $114,000,000 in legislative appropriations annually.
The officials said many providers are not filling assigned slots. "We have identified some providers who historically, over the last three years, have not been filling their slots," Smith said, and the department has notified about 28 programs showing a three'year trend of significant underenrollment. Staff told lawmakers that roughly 1,000 funded seats are, on average, unused each year while a waiting list of more than 2,000 families exists.
The department said these empty slots cost the state about $5 million to $6 million annually. To address the mismatch, officials said they will shift in February to paying by enrollment rather than by guaranteed slots. Smith said providers must demonstrate enrollment in assigned seats by February or face reductions when the fiscal year ends on June 30; affected programs have been asked to submit action plans describing how they will recruit families and fill slots.
Committee members pressed department staff on reasons for underfill and possible policy responses. Representative Mayberry asked whether the department had surveyed districts and providers to learn causes such as declining birthrates, competition from other providers, or income eligibility cutoffs. "The short answer is yes," Valleva said, adding that the causes are mixed and include attrition during the school year when families move or otherwise leave a program. Officials said many ABC slots (about 80 percent) are administered by public school districts and typically follow the traditional K'12 calendar, which can exclude year'round working families unless districts use CCDF or summer ABC funds for extended programming.
Lawmakers also asked about income eligibility and whether families who narrowly exceed cutoff thresholds could be granted access; staff said the department plans to compile more formal survey data and work with the Bureau of Legislative Research to produce historical comparisons and possible recommendations to modernize income levels and reimbursement policies. Members raised concerns about the per'child daily reimbursement rate and whether increasing rates would reduce the number of funded seats under current budget constraints.
Officials emphasized that children already enrolled in federal pre'K contracted seats will not lose their slots, but providers guaranteed allocations who are not filling them should not continue to hold unused funded seats. The committee agreed to form an early childhood subcommittee to examine the ABC program, reimbursement rates, eligibility thresholds, and other data before making formal recommendations.
Next steps: the department will continue outreach to providers and districts, pursue data collection and surveys for the committee, and enforce the February enrollment requirement; the subcommittee will meet to develop policy options and request BLR assistance with historical data and impact analysis.
