Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress released a new issue brief looking at the vital role home visiting programs play in helping parents foster healthy relationships and environments for their children. Support for home visiting programs was insufficient prior to COVID-19—serving just 3 percent of the 9 million high-priority families. However, the fallout of the pandemic underscores the need for greater investments in these programs as families grapple with job loss, food and housing insecurity, and loss of health insurance coverage, among other issues.
As the brief details, demand for these services is particularly great right now, yet home visiting programs are acutely vulnerable as states and localities grapple with declining revenues and budget shortfalls. To address short- and long-term challenges, the issue brief makes the following recommendations:
- Provide $100 million in additional federal funding for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program to allow home visitors to purchase and deliver household necessities and fund training on delivering virtual services.
- Allow programs the flexibility to count virtual visits as home visits.
- Double MIECHV funding by 2022 and double the funding set aside for tribal home visiting programs.
- Increase state investments in home visiting.
- Bolster funding to Medicaid and other benefit programs.
Please click here to read “Policymakers Must Fund Home Visiting Programs During COVID-19” by Cristina Novoa.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Colin Seeberger at [email protected] or 202-741-6292.