Childcare Cost in Arkansas (2026)

Nanny, Nanny Share and After-School Care in Arkansas

Care.com's average starting rate for a nanny in Arkansas is $18.74 an hour (October 2026). For a 40-hour week year-round that is about $38,980 a year ($3,248 a month) before employer payroll taxes, which add roughly 10% more. In Little Rock, the rate is $19.64 an hour, or about $40,850 a year.

In a nanny share, two families split one nanny and each typically pays about two-thirds of the solo rate: about $25,990 a year per family at the Arkansas average. After-school care for a school-age child averages $16.66 an hour statewide; at 15 hours a week that is about $12,990 a year, before summer care. As a nanny's employer you owe Social Security, Medicare and federal unemployment tax once you pay $3,000 or more in a year. Estimate the total with the nanny tax calculator or the nanny share calculator.

How Prices Vary Across Arkansas

The U.S. Department of Labor's county database has no 2022 figures for Arkansas, so the state's own 2023 market price study, based on price data from September 2023, is the best guide. Northwest Arkansas is by far the most expensive part of the state: the median daily price for full-time infant center care was $54 in Benton County and $48 in Washington County, against $33 in Pulaski County (Little Rock) and $17 in Union County, the lowest of any county with at least ten centers. In 2026 prices that is roughly $1,345 a month in Benton County, $820 in Pulaski and $425 in Union County.

Family child care homes in the state's urban counties charged a median of $24 a day for infants, and rural centers $27.

How Arkansas Compares With Nearby States

Child Care Aware of America's national average for full-time infant center care was $15,460 a year in 2025, about $1,330 a month in 2026 prices. Arkansas's statewide average is 37% below that, 43rd highest of the 47 states in the survey. The table compares Arkansas with its neighbors using the same survey, so the figures are like-for-like.

CCAoA 2025 statewide averages, +3.2% to 2026 prices. Rank 1 = most expensive. Our state pages for metro-tracked states headline a different figure (the average of the metros we track), so compare states using this table, not those headlines. For a big-city comparison, see our metro estimate for Memphis. West Memphis is part of the Memphis metro, but in our calculator Arkansas zip codes use the Arkansas statewide average.

How Affordable Is Child Care in Arkansas?

A year of full-time center care for one infant ($10,040 at the statewide average) equals 16% of Arkansas's median household income ($62,106), 10% of the median income of a married couple with children ($103,065) and 29% for a single mother ($34,676), using the U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey.

Help Paying for Child Care in Arkansas

School Readiness Assistance (SRA)

Arkansas's child care voucher program, formerly run by the Department of Human Services, is now School Readiness Assistance at the Department of Education's Office of Early Childhood. Families qualify with income up to 85% of state median income: $5,371.66 a month (about $64,460 a year) for a family of three on the chart effective October 1, 2025, the latest the state has posted. Each adult must work, attend school or training, or combine the two for at least 30 hours a week.

Since October 2025 most families pay a daily copay: nothing for children under kindergarten age at or below 40% of state median income, $7.20 a day for full-time infant care between 40% and 60%, and $10.80 a day above 60% (Benton and Washington counties have their own rates). A waiting list started in February 2025; on September 30, 2026, 3,608 children in 2,466 families were waiting, up from about 1,100 children a year earlier. Foster children, families eligible for TANF, families experiencing homelessness and families of children with special needs are served first. Apply through the SRA portal; details are on the Office of Early Childhood SRA page.

Arkansas tax credits

Arkansas's Child Care Credit is 20% of a credit you work out on Form AR2441 using the federal rules as they stood in 2013 (35% falling to 20% of up to $3,000 in expenses for one child or $6,000 for two or more), not the larger 2026 federal credit. That makes it at most $210 for one child or $420 for two, and $120 or $240 once federal AGI is over $43,000. It's nonrefundable, but the same amount is refundable as the Early Childhood Program Credit if your child attends a facility the Department of Education has certified as an approved early childhood program (the facility gives you Form AR1000EC). These are the 2025 rules; 2026 forms aren't out yet.

Arkansas Better Chance pre-K

Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) for School Success funds pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds in families at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, at least 7 hours a day for up to 178 days a year; some children, such as those in foster care, are exempt from the income test. Under the program's rules, only children who don't qualify on income can be charged a sliding fee.

Federal tax breaks

Federal benefits are the same in every state. For 2026 a Dependent Care FSA through an employer lets you set aside up to $7,500 per household before tax ($3,750 if married filing separately), and the Child and Dependent Care Credit covers 20% to 50% of up to $3,000 in care costs for one child or $6,000 for two or more; FSA money reduces the costs that count toward the credit. Compare the two with the Dependent Care FSA calculator or the child care tax credit calculator, and check your subsidy odds with the subsidy eligibility calculator.

What Our Calculator Uses in Arkansas

We don't track an Arkansas metro, so the calculator uses the statewide averages on this page everywhere in the state. That understates Northwest Arkansas, where centers charge far more than the state as a whole, and overstates the lowest-cost rural counties.

Yearly cost for one infant in full-time care. Zip codes are matched on their first three digits. Nanny figures are before employer payroll taxes. The calculator also adjusts for each child's age, part-time schedules, sibling discounts and tax savings.

Sources

• Prices: Child Care Aware of America, Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply (published May 2026; state price data; methodology). Inflation adjustment: BLS CPI-U, day care and preschool (December 2025 394.711; September 2026 407.335).
• County prices: U.S. Department of Labor, National Database of Childcare Prices, 2022 county medians (data file).
• Nanny rates: Care.com Cost of Care Calculator, Little Rock (state and city averages, October 2026).
• Subsidy: Arkansas Office of Early Childhood, School Readiness Assistance; SMI monthly income chart (effective October 1, 2025); SRA rules and regulations (November 2025).
• Taxes: 2025 Form AR2441, Arkansas DFA; Ark. Code Ann. § 26-51-502.
• Market rates: 2023 Arkansas Child Care Market Price Study (UAMS for the Office of Early Childhood).
• Income: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year, table B19013 (median household income) and table B19126 (median family income by family type).