Weekly Updates

The state Division of Children and Family Services continues to struggle with high staff turnover and high caseloads for family service workers. The two problems are closely related.

In the fiscal session earlier this year the legislature appropriated a million dollars for pregnancy resource centers. The state has awarded grants totaling about $455,000 to 14 centers. Because $545,000 has still not been awarded, the Department of Finance and Administration will open a second round of applications in October.

Over the next three years about 3,200 Arkansans with disabilities will be able to get Medicaid services at home or in their community, rather than in an institution. The Legislative Council approved the expansion of eligibility, submitted by the state Division of Developmental Disabilities Services.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic Arkansas has received billions of dollars in federal relief funding. The PEER subcommittee of the Legislative Council has grown significantly in importance because it reviews how state agencies, institutions of higher education and public schools proposed to spend those federal relief dollars.

The Senate and House Committees on Education are scheduled to vote on next year’s adequacy report at their meeting in early October.

At first glance, arts and technology would appear to be opposites in how they are taught and how they affect economic development. However, a bipartisan group of legislators has been working since 2018 to build the case that there is a crucial intersection where the arts and technology meet.

In July seven parolees were arrested and 18 weapons were seized. Their sentences will reflect the stronger penalties imposed by Act 946 of 2021, which enhances penalties for repeat offenders who use a firearm to commit felonies. The act prohibits them from being released on parole.

Arkansas has begun the process of expanding Medicaid services so that more pregnant women can qualify for the government health care program.

The legislature concluded a quick, three-day special session after approving income tax cuts that will save 1.6 million Arkansas taxpayers about $500 million.

When it meets in special session the legislature will consider a $50 million grant program for school safety measures.