Supported Decision-Making in Arkansas: What the Law Actually Says

National advocacy organizations tell families to "just use a supported decision-making agreement" instead of pursuing guardianship. In many states, that advice works — there is a statutory form, institutions are required to accept it, and the process is straightforward.

Arkansas is not one of those states. And families who rely on national templates without understanding the local legal landscape are setting themselves up for a painful surprise.

Arkansas Has No General SDM Statute

House Bill 1005, introduced in the 2021 session, would have created the "Supported Decision-Making Agreement Act" — a comprehensive statutory framework giving SDM agreements legal force across banking, healthcare, housing, and education. It failed to pass.

That means Arkansas has no standardized, legally binding, general-purpose supported decision-making agreement form. There is no statute requiring banks, landlords, or school districts to honor an SDM document.

What Arkansas Law Does Recognize

SDM shows up in Arkansas law in exactly two narrow contexts:

Lila's Law (A.C.A. § 20-14-902) — defines supported decision-making as an "auxiliary aid and service" that prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in organ transplant access. If a transplant center tries to deny someone an organ solely because they need decision-making support, Lila's Law prohibits that discrimination.

The Healthcare Decisions Act (A.C.A. § 20-6-101 et seq.) — recognizes supported decision-making as a reasonable accommodation that must be considered when evaluating whether someone has the capacity to make or revoke medical decisions. A provider cannot declare someone incapable of healthcare decisions without first considering whether SDM supports would restore that capacity.

Neither provision creates a general-purpose SDM agreement that carries legal weight across all institutions and decision-making contexts.

Creating an Informal SDM Agreement

Families in Arkansas can still create informal SDM arrangements. These are written agreements that specify:

• Who the young adult chooses as their support team
• What types of decisions they want help with (finances, housing, medical care, daily living)
• How they want to receive that support (information explained in plain language, help weighing options, accompaniment to appointments)

These agreements are valuable for structuring daily life and clarifying roles within the family. They signal to third parties that the young adult is making their own decisions with assistance, not being overridden by a guardian.

The limitation is enforceability. A bank or medical system may choose to honor an informal SDM agreement — but nothing in Arkansas law compels them to.

Strengthening SDM With Formal Instruments

The practical solution for most Arkansas families is to use SDM as a philosophy while backing it with legally enforceable documents:

• A durable power of attorney for financial decisions that the young adult is not comfortable handling alone
• A healthcare power of attorney for medical situations where they cannot communicate
• A HIPAA authorization for routine medical information sharing
• A FERPA release for continued parental access to educational records

This combination preserves the young adult's role as the primary decision-maker in daily life while providing legally enforceable backup authority for the specific situations where institutional cooperation requires it.

The Advocacy Gap

Organizations like the Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities and Disability Rights Arkansas actively promote self-determination and supported decision-making. Their educational materials are excellent at explaining the philosophy and the dignity of risk.

But they operate under severe funding and staffing constraints. They cannot provide individual legal representation to every family navigating the transition, and their intake criteria focus primarily on systemic abuse and precedent-setting discrimination cases. They are advocacy organizations, not personal attorneys.

The Arkansas Adult Guardianship & Alternatives Guide bridges this gap — showing how to combine informal SDM principles with the formal legal instruments that Arkansas institutions actually recognize, without defaulting to the court system.

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