The Afterschool Investments project has developed profiles for each state to provide a snapshot of the "state of afterschool," as well as an opportunity to compare afterschool activities across the country. This profile provides key data and descriptions of the afterschool landscape, which includes a range of out-of-school time programming that can occur before and after school, on weekends, and during summer months. It is designed to serve as a resource for policymakers, administrators, and providers.

• Quick Facts
• Statewide Initiatives
• Notable Local Initiatives
• Statewide Organizations
• Additional Resources
• Notes and Sources

Quick Facts

Demographics

For more demographic information, visit http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/statedata/statepro/index.html

Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)

• CCDF Administrative Overview

• Settings

Where CCDF-Subsidy school age-children are served:

• Uses of CCDF Targeted Funds and Quality Dollars for Afterschool

"Resource and referral and school-age" targeted funds:
Funds may be used to plan a Child Care Resource & Referral regional conference and to provide information about licensed child care across the state through a variety of outlets. The Arkansas School Age Quality Initiative may use funds to support the work of the AR School-Age Care Association, and to develop informational tools to share with the school-age community.

Other quality activities:
Special training projects developed by different state universities focusing on school-age activities may be funded with quality dollars.

• Provider Reimbursement Rates

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Care

Program Licensing and Accreditation Policies

21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC)

Additional information about 21stCCLC: Cooperative efforts between school districts and community-based organizations applying for 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding allows for outreach and expansion of quality afterschool programs for children.

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Statewide Initiatives

• Arkansas Out-of-School Network. (AOSN). Established in 2002, the AOSN teamed up with the National Governor’s Association to hold a Governor’s Summit on Extra Learning Opportunities in March 2006 and to launch its statewide campaign to promote and expand quality afterschool programs across Arkansas.  Working committees have been meeting to establish quality standards, promote professional development, determine the cost of quality programs, and to conduct community outreach and public education on the benefits of after school programs. A website has been established (www.aosn.org), regional meetings are being held with local leaders, and communication tools have been developed to help promote these programs in Arkansas. The network brings together state, local, private, and faith-based organizations to build an infrastructure and information system to serve all programs. Funding for AOSN is provided by the Charles Stewart Moot Foundation, the AR Department of Health and Human Services, and the AR Department of Education.

  For more information contact Paul Kelly at pkelly@aradvocates.org, or visit http://www.aosn.org.

• Arkansas School-Age Quality Initiative. Using over $100,000 in CCDF quality funds, the Arkansas Department of Human Services contracts with Childhood Services at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro to provide training to school-age programs across the state with the goal of increasing the number of state-accredited school-age programs. This work includes efforts to create cooperative efforts between school districts and community-based organizations applying for 21st Century Community Learning Center funding. Funds support annual statewide and regional school-age conferences, the Arkansas School-Age Care Alliance, the quarterly publication of School-Age Links for caregivers, and enhancement grants to licensed school-age child care programs to upgrade and expand care quality.

• Arkansas 21-Century Network. This initiative, a partnership of the Arkansas Department of Education and the Yale Center for Child Development and Social Policy, seeks to provide Arkansas’ children and families with high quality educational programs. In 2001, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation joined the effort with a five-year commitment to increasing the network’s capacity statewide. Several of the School of the 21st Century Network communities have focused on providing extended-day afterschool programs for elementary and middle- school students.
  
  For more information, see http://www.yale.edu/21c/arkansas/

• Raising Arkansas Youth. In 2000, representatives from Arkansas attended a national Search Institute meeting that focused on programs that help develop the 40 essential youth development assets for young people. Since that meeting, the group, formalized as the Raising Arkansas Youth (RAY) Initiative, meets regularly to determine how Arkansas will implement a statewide asset-building initiative. With coordination by the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension service, the initiative is a collaborative effort of many organizations, including Arkansas’ Promise, New Futures for Youth, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, Communities and Schools, Jones Center for Families, Sheriffs Youth Ranch, Little Rock Air Force Base, Department of Volunteerism, and others. Afterschool programs are a key focus of the group’s work.

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Notable Local Initiatives

• Prevention, Intervention, & Treatment (PIT) Initiative. In 1994, a citizen-based project called FUTURE-Little Rock recommended and helped pass a 1/2 cent sales tax to permanently designate city funds to sustain and administer the city’s Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment (PIT) initiative, which emphasizes neighborhood collaborations between public, private, and other community-based players; strong citizen involvement; and targeted youth development programming. Since the implementation of PIT, major crimes in Little Rock have dropped, especially among the adolescent population. A piece of this youth development strand is New Futures for Youth, an Annie E. Casey Foundation program that provides a forum for community problem solving and encouraging collaboration between the various community players in youth issues—churches, businesses, and neighborhood groups. New Futures recommended that the Prevention and Intervention portions of the funding be consolidated and used to fund neighborhood-based youth development programs during non-school hours and that the programs be targeted to those neighborhoods with the greatest needs. The City of Little Rock currently funds 24 year-round youth development programs.

• Jonesboro, Arkansas. In response to a 1998 school shooting, Jonesboro city officials surveyed citizens and identified the need for more neighborhood and community center programs for youth. As a result, the city and local school districts have partnered and received several federal grants, including an $8.7 million, four-year Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. The school district and city have designed afterschool programs that focus on character education, physical education, and community service. A portion of the city’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds also support the programs.

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Statewide Organizations

National AfterSchool Association Affiliate:

Arkansas School-Age Care Alliance
1201 West Center
Beebe, AR 72012
Phone: 501-882-8408
Fax: 501-882-5465

Arkansas Out-of-School Network
Union Station, Suite 306
1400 West Markham
Little Rock, AR 72201-1844
Phone: 501-371-9678, Ext. 102
Fax: 501-371-9681
Web: www.aosn.org

Statewide Afterschool Network:

Arkansas State University Child Services
P.O. Box 808
State University, AR 72467
Phone: 870-972-3055 Ext. 44
Web: http://www.state.ar.us/

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Additional Resources

State Child Care Administrators:
http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/statedata/dirs/display.cfm?title=ccdf

State TANF Contacts:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/tanf-dir.htm

21st Century Community Learning Centers Contacts:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/contacts.html

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Notes and Sources

Demographics

Total population: Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States and States, and for Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006, U.S. Census Bureau.

Number of children ages 5-12: Estimates of the Resident Population by Single-Year of Age and Sex for the United States and States: July 1, 2006, U.S. Census Bureau.

Percent of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch rate: Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

Percent of K-12 students in Title I "schoolwide" schools: Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. The federal Title I program provides funding to local school districts and schools with high percentages of poor children to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards. Schools enrolling at least 40 percent of students from poor families are eligible to use Title I funds for schoolwide programs that serve all children in the school.

Child Care and Development Fund

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is the largest federal funding source for child care. States receive a funding allocation determined by formula and have broad flexibility to design programs that provide child care subsidies for low-income children under the age of 13 and to enhance the quality of child care for all children. Federal CCDF funding consists of mandatory, matching, and discretionary funds. Federal law requires that states spend at least 4 percent of their CCDF funds as well as additional targeted funds on activities to improve the quality and availability of child care. CCDF administrative data in this and the following sections is from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Child Care Bureau, as reported by States, unless otherwise noted.

FFY06 state MOE plus match: In order to receive Federal matching funds, a state must expend Maintenance of Effort funds. Note that this does not capture actual expenditures, only the minimum required to draw down all available federal funds.

FFY06 Tribal CCDF Allocation: Federal CCDF Funds are awarded directly to Federally-recognized Indian Tribes.

FFY05 total quality expenditures: This data includes FY05 and prior year funds expended for quality from each of the CCDF funding streams (mandatory, matching, and discretionary) and expenditures under targeted funds for infant and toddler, school-age care and resource and referral. This figure provides information obtained from state financial reports submitted for FY05.

Uses of CCDF Targeted Funds and Quality Dollars for Afterschool: Portions of CCDF discretionary funds are targeted specifically for resource and referral and school-age child care activities as well as for quality expansion. (These funds are in addition to the required 4 percent minimum quality expenditure.)

Maximum rate for school-age category: Rate listed applies to center-based care; where rates vary by region or county, the rate for the most populated urban area is given.

Standardized monthly school-age rate: Monthly rate for a child, age 8, in care after school during the school year at a center in the most costly district for four hours per day, 20 days per month. Calculated (in the lowest tier of a tiered system) using information from the FY2006-2007. State CCDF Plan, including rate structures, as submitted to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Separate subsidy rates for part-time vs. full time and Tiered Reimbursement Rate Systems: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Care Bureau. Report of State Plans FY2006-2007.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Care

In addition to spending TANF funds directly on child care, a state may transfer up to 30 percent of its TANF grant to CCDF. Expenditures represent TANF funds spent in FY05 that were awarded in FY05 and prior years. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Program Licensing and Accreditation Policies

States with separate school-age licensing standards and states with specialized requirements for child care centers serving school-age children: National Association for Regulatory Administration, 2005 Child Care Licensing Study, available at http://www.nara.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=104.

Ratio of children to adults in school-age setting: Data from the National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC), available at: http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov.

Number of NAA-accredited programs: Data from the National AfterSchool Association, March 2007, available at: http://www.naaweb.org.

21st Century Community Learning Centers

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 converted the 21st Century Community Learning Centers’ authority to a state formula grant. In past years, the U.S. Department of Education made competitive awards directly to school districts. Under the reauthorized law, funds flow to states based on their share of Title I, Part A funds. States use their allocations to make competitive awards to eligible entities. Data from the U.S. Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Centers Office and the 21st CCLC Profile and Performance Information Collection System.

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The Child Care Bureau awarded a technical assistance contract to The Finance Project and their partner, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, for the Afterschool Investments project. The goals of the Afterschool Investments project include:

• Identifying ways that state and communities are using Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidy and quality dollars to support out-of-school time programs, and sharing these practices and approaches with other states;
• Identifying administrative and implementation issues related to CCDF investments in out-of-school time programs, and providing information and context (about barriers, problems, opportunities) as well as practical tools that will help CCDF administrators make decisions; and
• Identifying other major programs and sectors that are potential partners for CCDF in supporting out-of-school time programs and providing models, strategies, and tools for coordination with other programs and sectors.

Contact Us:

Email:
afterschool@financeproject.org

Web:
http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/afterschool/

The Finance Project
1401 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-587-1000
Web: www.financeproject.org

National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices
444 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-624-5300
Web: www.nga.org

The Afterschool Investments project’s State Profiles are designed to provide a comprehensive overview of noteworthy State and local initiatives across the country. Inclusion of an initiative in the Profiles does not represent an endorsement of a particular policy or practice.