Children placed in high-quality care settings are safer and more secure while their parents are at work. They also develop important social and academic skills and are more likely to be ready to start kindergarten. Despite its importance, high-quality child care is often expensive and out of reach for low-income families. Publicly funded programs help low-income families afford child care. The greater the share of children that receive high-quality early child care, whether in centers or at home, the stronger their chances for strong academic outcomes in the future.

In 2019, there were enough high-quality, publicly funded seats to serve 61% of Arkansas' preschoolers, the same as in 2018, though the number of quality seats available fell by 188 seats statewide. Rates varied by county across the state. Grant and Miller counties had the lowest rates of quality seats per preschooler (17% and 25% respectively). In contrast, 10 counties had more quality seat capacity than children in that age group (Bradley, Chicot, Dallas, Desha, Hot Spring, Lafayette, Lawrence, Mississippi, Monroe, and Scott), with quality seat rates ranging from 103% for Mississippi and Lawrence counties to 256% for Dallas County. This may be due to sites in these counties serving children from other counties, or having a licensed capacity (due to the physical size of the facility) that is much larger than the actual number of seats offered.

The number of licensed seats reported is a point in time count. This represents the number of seats a facility is licensed for (based on its physical size), not the number of seats a facility offers (which may be a smaller number). The data reported is as of the spring of its given year.

Given that current population estimates are not available past 2017, the number of children for more recent years is projected based on 1991-2017 population estimates by age provided by the Centers for Disease Control.