Arkansas

Arkansas has two private school choice programs: a school voucher program and a tax-credit scholarship program.

Arkansas offers K–12 students and their families various types of school choice, including two private school choice program—a school voucher and tax-credit scholarship—as well as charter schools, magnet schools, homeschooling and traditional public school choice via open enrollment.

Philanthropic Investment in Arkansas Kids Scholarship Program

  • Arkansas offers tax credits to individuals and businesses that support scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs), nonprofits that provide private school scholarships to students from families earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
  • Enacted 2021

Program Rules:

    • Income Limit: 200 percent x Poverty 
    • Prior Year Public School Requirement: Yes, with exceptions 
    • Geographic Limit: Statewide  
    • Enrollment Cap: None 
    • Scholarship Cap: $5,614 (K–8) / $6,316 (9–12)  
    • Testing Mandates:  Nationally norm-referenced tests 
    • Credit Value: 100 percent 
    • Per Donor Credit Cap: none 
    • Total Tax Credit Cap: $2 million

Succeed Scholarship Program

  • Arkansas provides private school vouchers to students in foster care, students with disabilities and the children of active-duty or reserve members of the U.S. military. Students who fall under these categories must have previously attended public school, unless they are children of active-duty military families or they receive a waiver from their school district.
  • Enacted 2015

Program Rules:

    • Income Limit: None 
    • Prior Year Public School Requirement: Yes, with exceptions 
    • Geographic Limit: Statewide 
    • Enrollment Cap: None, except students in foster care are capped at 20 
    • Maximum voucher amount: $7,182 
    • Testing Mandates: Nationally norm-referenced tests 
    • Additional Information: Limited to students with special needs, in foster careor dependents of U.S. military personnel 

To find out more about educational choice programs in your state, please complete the below form.