Affordable Daycare in Arkansas

890 daycares that accept child care assistance are listed in 189 Arkansas towns. Accepting assistance says nothing about a daycare's own prices. A daycare without this tag may still accept assistance; ask.

Little Rock, with 104 listed. Next are Springdale (46) and Bentonville (39).

Apply through School Readiness Assistance, run by the Arkansas Department of Education, Office of Early Childhood. It is for low-income families where each adult works or attends school or training full time, with children from birth through age 12. Funds are limited and there is a waitlist, with priority for TANF, homeless and special-needs families. Income limits change each year, so check the current limits on the state's site.

Some families can get it. Head Start and Early Head Start are free for children from families who qualify, and some states waive the family's share of the cost for the lowest incomes. Ask your state's child care assistance office what you qualify for.

Not by itself. Accepting assistance means the daycare takes payments from the state program; its own prices vary like any daycare's. Ask whether it charges more than the state pays, and how much you would pay.

Each state runs a child care assistance program, paid for in part by the federal Child Care and Development Fund. Families who qualify by income, and usually by working, looking for work or going to school, get help paying a daycare that accepts it; the help is often called a voucher or subsidy. Most families pay a share called a copayment, set by the state. Apply through the Arkansas child care assistance office.

Some families can. States may waive the copayment for families with the lowest incomes, and Head Start and Early Head Start are free for families who qualify. Ask your state's child care assistance office what you qualify for.

Arkansas Office of Early Childhood licenses daycares in Arkansas. It publishes its inspections and the rules it cited, and we copy them onto each listing.