Arkansas’ child care system needs additional funding to avoid widespread closures and layoffs due to changes to the state’s financial aid program for low-income families, providers told the state Early Childhood Commission during a Wednesday work session.
A survey of providers found that about a quarter of them, spread out among 50 of Arkansas’ 75 counties, expect 400 layoffs by November, said Shahid Sheikh, owner of four Northwest Arkansas child care centers. Sheikh was among several child care providers and experts invited to the commission’s work session for discussion.
Eighty of the 250 facilities who responded to the survey are likely to close in the next 60 days, and many of them are located in low-income communities where child care is already scarce, Sheikh said…