Even before Noah was born, it was clear his early years would be difficult. An ultrasound when his mother was pregnant showed two holes in his heart and other cardiac abnormalities. He stayed in the hospital after his birth, in November 2013, and had his first heart surgery two weeks later. Recovery from that operation kept him in the hospital until he was three months old. After two months at home, he had to return to the hospital for a second heart surgery.
In home-visiting programs, early child development specialists typically visit first-time mothers every two weeks during pregnancy, weekly in the child’s first three years, and once or twice a month after that until the child is school-age. The mothers have low incomes; most are also unmarried, and many are in their teens. Research indicates that children of such mothers are at increased risk of being abused or neglected. The home visitors make sure their clients get good prenatal care, prepare them for labor and delivery, and coach them in child care. They ensure that immunizations are received on time, and they screen their clients’ children for disabilities, so that kids in need of special therapies receive them early, when they’re most likely to make a difference.
Last spring the state agreed to pay Metropolitan $472,000 for what then was the coming fiscal year—July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016—for the home-visiting program Noah’s family is a part of, which is known as Healthy Families. Metropolitan also had a $580,000 contract to provide home-visiting services for the state through a separate program managed by another nonprofit, the Ounce of Prevention Fund (whose president is Diana Rauner, the governor’s wife).
In March, Metropolitan suspended the home-visiting program it had been operating through the Ounce of Prevention. One hundred and fourteen families lost services. Many clients of other agencies had also lost services. The 25 programs funded through the Ounce ordinarily serve 2,000 families; the number being served was down by 30 percent in March, and continued to fall as agencies were forced to lay off staff, close programs, and terminate clients.
—Lorena Sanchez
Buoyed by the results in Elmira, home-visiting programs soon blossomed throughout the country. Nationally today, 200,000 families are served by federally funded home-visiting programs, and according to estimates, another 200,000 families get state-funded home-visiting services. (Far more families who qualify for home visiting still aren’t getting it; in the U.S., 5.3 million children younger than three live in low-income families.) An abundance of evidence continues to indicate that home-visiting programs reduce child abuse and neglect. Some studies also have shown myriad long-term benefits from home visiting, such as better performance and behavior throughout elementary and high school, although that research isn’t conclusive.
