| Overview | Health and Nutrition |
State policies that promote health, education, and strong families can help the early development and school readiness of America's youngest citizens. This profile highlights Arizona's policy choices alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.
Trends1
In Arizona, both parents and children up to age five have access to health insurance if family income is below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. This is a dramatic increase for parents since 2000, when the income eligibility was 51 percent of poverty. Income eligibility for child care subsidies has not changed from 160 percent of the federal poverty level in 2001. State funding for prekindergarten has increased only slightly since 2002. The $12 million investment serves 6 percent of the state's 4-year-olds.
Recent Developments1
In 2006, Arizona’s Proposition 203 established the Early Childhood Development and Health Fund by increasing the state tax on tobacco products. The fund will support early childhood development programs, parent and family support programs, provider professional development, and preventive health care and health screenings. Funding will be distributed based on the population of children ages 5 and younger, the number of families with incomes less than 100 percent of federal poverty, and other considerations. Arizona’s 2007 budget also added $7.9 million to raise the maximum reimbursement rates for child care providers, $400,000 to hire additional child care licensing staff, and $70 million to eliminate the waiting list for child care subsidies.
| Health and Nutrition |
Data Notes and Sources
Last Updated: July 23, 2008
Send us recent developments to update your state's profile.
- The trends and recent developments come from personal communications with state advocates, administrators, and policymakers. The following publications were also consulted:
Donna Cohen Ross, Aleya Horn, and Caryn Marks, Health Coverage for Children and Families in Medicaid and SCHIP: State Efforts Face New Hurdles: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2008, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2008 http://www.kff.org (accessed April 11, 2008).
W. Steven Barnett, Jason Hustedt, Allison Friedman, Judi Stevenson Boyd, and Pat Ainsworth, The State of Preschool 2007, National Institute for Early Education Research, 2007.
Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward, More Progress Needed, National Women's Law Center, September 2007.
National Center for Children in Poverty, Map and Track State Initiatives for Young Children and Families, 2000 Edition, 2000
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2005, June 2006
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2006, unpublished draft
National Governors Association, Front and Center education articles, 2006, http://www.nga.org
ZERO TO THREE, The Baby Monitor, 2006 Policy and Advocacy News Archive, http://www.zerotothree.org - State data were calculated from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (the March supplement) of the Current Population Survey from 2005, 2006, and 2007, representing information from calendar years 2004, 2005, and 2006. NCCP averaged three years of data because of small sample sizes in less populated states. The national data were calculated from the 2007 data, representing information from the previous calendar year.
- National and state data were calculated from the 2006 American Community Survey.