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 34% of Arkansas' preschoolers. Rates varied by county across the state. Grant and Benton counties had the lowest rates of quality slots per preschooler at 12% each. In contrast, Lafayette and Cleveland counties had more quality slot capacity than children in that age group at 112% and 108% respectively. 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 slots offered.

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.