The Arkansas LEARNS Act, enacted as Act 237 of 2023, is the state’s most sweeping K-12 overhaul in decades. It raised the minimum teacher salary to $50,000, created Education Freedom Accounts that families can use for private school tuition and other educational costs, imposed structured-literacy standards with third-grade retention beginning in 2025-2026, added a 75-hour community service graduation requirement, and rewrote the rules for hiring and dismissing teachers. Some pieces are still phasing in, and the Education Freedom Account program is the subject of a constitutional challenge that the Arkansas Supreme Court allowed to proceed in December 2025.
Education Freedom Accounts
An Education Freedom Account, or EFA, is a state-managed account funded with public money that families can spend on approved educational expenses outside the traditional public school system. Each participating student receives up to 90% of the annual per-student public school funding rate. For the 2025-2026 school year, that comes to $6,864.1Arkansas Senate. EFA Accounts Funded Through 2025-2026 School Year
Approved expenses include private school tuition, textbooks, instructional materials, uniforms, tutoring, and technology. The Arkansas Department of Education deposits funds quarterly and reviews each purchase for compliance.2Arkansas Department of Education. Arkansas Education Freedom Account Family Handbook 2025-26
Who Qualifies
The program rolled out in stages. Early years limited eligibility to first-time kindergarteners, students at F-rated schools or Level 5 districts, students with disabilities under IDEA, children of active-duty military, students experiencing homelessness, current or former foster youth, and students previously in the Succeed Scholarship Program. By the 2025-2026 school year, the program opened to all K-12 students regardless of income or the performance of their assigned school. The 2026-2027 school year is the second year of universal eligibility.3Arkansas Department of Education. Family EFA Details4Arkansas Department of Education. Education Freedom Account Application Cycle Opens for Year Four
Spending Limits
Act 920 of 2025 added a cap: no more than 25% of an EFA can be spent on extracurricular activities, physical education, or educational field trips within Arkansas. That category does not include team sports or club sports. EFA funds cannot be used for equipment, recreational fees, travel costs, or dues.
The Pending Lawsuit
A lawsuit filed in June 2024 argues the EFA program unlawfully diverts public school funding to private schools in violation of the Arkansas Constitution. In December 2025, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled the case could proceed and rejected the state’s sovereign immunity argument. The court also allowed three parents who use EFAs to intervene. As of early 2026, the constitutional claims have not been decided on the merits, and the program continues operating while the case is pending.
Literacy Requirements and Third-Grade Retention
The LEARNS Act requires K-12 instruction to align with structured literacy grounded in the Science of Reading. Districts must give every K-3 student a state-approved literacy screener within the first 30 days of school. Students identified as struggling readers receive an individual reading plan that lists their specific skill gaps, growth benchmarks, interventions, and strategies for parents to use at home.5Arkansas Department of Education. Early Literacy – Arkansas LEARNS Act
Families of at-risk K-3 readers may qualify for a $500 literacy tutoring grant, usable for tutoring services or approved digital literacy applications from a state-approved provider. Retained fourth-graders are also eligible.6Arkansas Department of Education. Literacy Tutoring Grant Program District-Facing Guidance The state is also deploying at least 120 literacy coaches to work with K-3 teachers in D and F-rated schools.7Arkansas Department of Education. Literacy Overview – Arkansas LEARNS Act
Retention Begins in 2025-2026
Beginning at the end of the 2025-2026 school year, third-graders who do not meet the state’s reading standard will not be promoted to fourth grade. Retained students must receive 90 minutes of evidence-based literacy instruction every school day, be assigned to a highly effective teacher, and get a read-at-home plan.8Arkansas Department of Education. Third-Grade Promotion
A student may still be promoted under a good cause exemption. Exemptions apply to students with significant cognitive disabilities who take the Dynamic Learning Map assessment; students with an IEP or 504 Plan who have received more than two years of documented Science of Reading interventions; English learners with fewer than three years of formal English instruction; previously retained students; students who were evaluated for special education, did not qualify, and have had two or more years of evidence-based intervention; portfolio exemptions for students who consistently perform at grade level but scored poorly on the assessment; and students affected by an isolated traumatic event that directly affected test performance.9Arkansas Department of Education. Third-Grade Promotion Guidance 2025-2026
If your child is in third grade, ask the school for the literacy screener results and the individual reading plan if one has been created.
Community Service Graduation Requirement
Every Arkansas high school student in the Class of 2027 and beyond must complete 75 documented hours of community service to graduate. The hours break out as 15 in ninth grade and 20 in each of the three remaining years. Students who entered ninth grade in 2023-2024 are the first class subject to the rule. Keep records as service is completed; documentation is required.10Arkansas Department of Education. Community Service Requirement for Graduation Guidance
Teacher Pay and Employment
The LEARNS Act set a $50,000 minimum base salary for classroom teachers in Arkansas public schools and open-enrollment charter schools, up from a $36,000 floor. Teachers already earning above $50,000 received a guaranteed raise of at least $2,000, and the state put $183 million behind the changes.11Arkansas Department of Education. LEARNS Teacher Minimum Salary and Raise Fund
Base salaries no longer automatically increase with years of experience or advanced degrees. That gives districts more flexibility in structuring pay and means a teacher with a master’s degree and 15 years in the classroom no longer has a guaranteed statutory salary advantage.12Justia Law. Arkansas Code 6-17-2403 – Minimum Teacher Compensation
The Act also created the Merit Teacher Incentive Fund, a performance bonus program. Teachers whose students post the strongest growth scores can earn up to $10,000 a year. In year one, teachers with a three-year average student growth score in the top 5% statewide received the maximum award.13Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. Merit Teacher Incentive Fund
Dismissal Rules Rewritten
The LEARNS Act repealed the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, which had governed non-renewal and termination decisions for decades.14Justia Law. Arkansas Code 6-17-1506 – Teacher Fair Dismissal Act Under the prior framework, teachers continuously employed for three or more years gained procedural protections that made dismissal a long, multi-step process. Those protections are gone.
Districts are also barred from using seniority or tenure as the primary factor in hiring, assignment, or dismissal decisions. A reduction-in-force can no longer default to a last-hired, first-fired approach. Teachers still have basic due-process rights under state law, including notice and an opportunity for a hearing, but the procedural guardrails are thinner than before.
Paid Maternity Leave
Effective July 1, 2025, eligible employees in public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools can receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave following the birth or adoption of a child. The 12-week period starts on the day of the qualifying event and extends by one day for each school holiday or weather cancellation that falls within it. The state reimburses districts for the leave, and districts may offer more than the 12-week minimum.15Code of Arkansas Rules. 6 CAR 193-105 – Eligible Employee Maternity Leave
Struggling Schools and Rural Protections
The Act gave the State Board of Education broader authority over low-performing schools. A public school carrying a D or F accountability rating, or one classified at Level 5 Intensive Support because of ongoing academic, financial, or administrative problems, may enter into a transformation contract. That contract allows an outside entity, such as an open-enrollment charter school, education cooperative, or other state-approved organization, to take over management of the school with State Board approval.
For small rural schools, the Act includes a consolidation carve-out. A school with fewer than 350 students is exempt from consolidation if any student would need to travel more than 40 miles by bus.