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 2023, there were enough high-quality publicly funded slots to serve 10% of Arkansas' infants and toddlers. The availability of these slots varied widely by county. There were 15 counties that had no publicly funded quality slots for children in this age group (Ashley, Boone, Bradley, Clark, Franklin, Grant, Howard, Lafayette, Lee, Little River, Madison, Marion, Miller, Newton, and Prairie). At the other end of the spectrum, Woodruff County had enough quality slots to serve 77% of children in this age group.

The number of licensed slots reported is a point in time count. This represents the number of slots a facility is licensed for (based on its physical size), not the number of slots 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 2020, the number of children for more recent years is projected based on 1990-2020 population estimates by age provided by the Centers for Disease Control.