Key Takeaways from EFA Report
Annually the Arkansas Department of Education contracts with the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform to conduct a legally mandated study on the EFA program. On Friday, the 2025-26 report was publicly released. This was an important year because it is the first year of universal access to the program. The report had some pretty notable takeaways that we felt were completely missed by several media outlets. Much of the reporting focused on the fact that the majority of students enrolled in the program were already in private schools. That was certainly to be expected the first year it was universally accessible. Kids who were already enrolled in private schools remained enrolled once they had access to alternative funds to do so. But it was hardly the most interesting part of the report.
Here are a few takeaways we found notable:
There are increased options across the state: 55 of Arkansas’s 75 counties now have an EFA partner school and 68.9% of the state is within 15 miles of a participating school. Last year we lamented the lack of options across the state. This year, we see a significant increase in access.
Students with disabilities were well represented: At least 16.3% of EFA participants have qualifying disabilities compared to 15.9% of Arkansas K-12 students. A whopping 21% of mircoschool participants had a qualifying disability.
Microschools are making a mark: For the first time, the report identifies microschools separately with 1,295 students participating.
Participation skews younger: Elementary students participate at much higher rates than high school students. We have some ideas about why this is and we look forward to digging into this more in the future.
Families are staying. Approximately 96% of participants remained in the program and 83.8% stayed at the same school. Those are pretty impressive retention rates.
Racial data included in the report: We were happy to see that racial data was included in the report for the first time. The data revealed that Black and Hispanic students were underrepresented in Arkansas’s EFA program in 2025-26. Though the report doesn’t provide suggestions for improvement, we think this data highlights an area where improvement is necessary. It’s important that there are meaningful options available to all students in Arkansas. We look forward to highlighting community leaders who are working hard to make that happen. Because of that work, we expect future reports will reflect greater representation across the state.
Like all good descriptive reports, the report highlighted some big wins as well as some areas where the potential of the program is not fully recognized. We'll be sharing a closer look at several of these takeaways over the next couple of weeks, along with a few things we would love to see researchers explore in next year's report. Stay tuned…and if you prefer less text follow along on our instagram page.
