Business Coalition

Since 2020, Excel by Eight has mobilized Arkansas businesses to identify workable solutions that address the three critical elements of the child care crisis – accessibility, affordability, and quality – and its impact on the state’s current and future workforce. Beginning in early 2024, the formalized business coalition meets quarterly to discuss policy goals ahead of the Arkansas State Legislature’s 2025 general session.

Quality child care is essential to a thriving Arkansas economy, and business has long been overlooked as a key component of solving the child care challenges in Arkansas. Working parents need safe, reliable, and affordable child care to build successful careers, remain contributing members of the workforce, and support their families.

Representatives from more than 50 businesses, nonprofits, and chambers of commerce across the state have joined forces to participate in this effort:

100 Families Sebastian County
ACE Glass
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families
Arkansas AFL-CIO
Arkansas Business Publishing Group
Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association, Inc.
Arkansas Community Foundation
Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance
Arkansas Impact Philanthropy
Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center
Arkansas State Chamber / Associated Industries of Arkansas
Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce
Big Oak Tree Media
Building Bridges Developmental and Community Services, Inc.
Central Arkansas Library System
Child Care Aware of North Central Arkansas
Child Care Aware NWA
Child Care Aware of West Central Arkansas
City of Fayetteville – Department of Economic Vitality
Community Services Office, Little Rock
Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, AR
Economic Opportunity Agency of Washington County
Education Partners
El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce
Excel by Eight
Excellerate Foundation
Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce
Fifty for the Future (Little Rock)

Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce
Hot Springs Women’s Leadership Alliance
Jackson Law Firm
Level 5 Architecture
Little Rock Regional Chamber
McGeorge Contracting Co., Inc.
Milbank
Mississippi County Regional Chamber of Commerce
Morrilton Area Chamber of Commerce
Nabholz
Northwest Arkansas Council
Pilgrim’s Pride
Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects
Red Head Farm LLC
Rockwater Village
Rogers Lowell Chamber
SHARE Foundation
South Arkansas Regional Hospital
Springdale Chamber of Commerce
St. Bernard’s Healthcare
UA Cossatot
United Way of Northwest Arkansas
University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College
Walton Personal Philanthropy Group
Wilson & Associates, PLLC
Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation
Women’s Foundation of Arkansas

Help us find solutions to the child care crisis.

Excel by Eight looks forward to working with you to advance policy that impacts child care in Arkansas. Please complete this form to be a part of our coalition of businesses, nonprofits, chambers of commerce, and philanthropic organizations that agree that early childhood education is critical to the recruitment and retention of Arkansas’s current workforce and the development of its future workforce.

Join

News and Resources

Child Care Policy Options for Businesses

Many states have enacted cost-sharing and tax-credit policies that help employees cover the cost of child care. View a summary of child care policy options to learn more about the eligibility requirements, cost-sharing method, and funding process for programs in Iowa Kentucky, Michigan, and Tennessee and to see what tax credit options are available in Arkansas and other states.

Business Coalition Slide Deck

View a master slide deck for the business coalition to learn more about the importance of early childhood education to children’s brain development and how the lack of accessible, affordable, high-quality child care threatens workforce recruitment and retention in Arkansas.

News Media Coverage