A new brief by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) provides an overview of state and federal efforts to support home visiting, noting the strategy “enjoys mostly bipartisan support… due, in part, to the evidence behind the programs and the return on investment.”
Home Visiting: Improving Children’s and Families’ Well-Being describes home visiting as “a voluntary, two-generation (e.g., whole family) model that addresses issues such as health, child development, parenting, education and family violence.”
The brief reports that states have taken a leadership role in supporting the implementation of home visiting. “States have historically led public investment in home visiting. States started funding home visiting in the 1980s and continue to pass legislation to expand programming and increase accountability.”
According to the report, about 40% of counties in the U.S. had an evidence-based home visiting program in 2016.
The National Home Visiting Resource Center has identified Florida implementation sites for the following evidence-based home visiting programs: Child First, Early Head Start, Family Check-Up, Healthy Families America, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, Minding the Baby, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers. Statewide, 102 local agencies operated at least one of these models, and provided more than 154,000 home visits to 15,000 families and young children in 2016. Healthy Families Florida is the only program available statewide. Home visiting programs are funded by federal, state and local sources, including FL MIECHV.