EDUCATION BEGINS AT HOME ACT (S. 667/H.R. 2343)
What it is: The bipartisan Education Begins at Home Act, introduced by Senators Bond (R-MO)
and Clinton (D-NY) in the Senate and Representatives Davis (D-IL) and Platts (R-PA) in the House, would provide grants to help
establish or expand voluntary home visiting programs for families with young children.
How it works: The Education Begins at Home Act would authorize $400 million over three years in grants from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services to states for voluntary home visiting programs. These programs help new parents learn
skills to promote healthy child development and be better parents. The bills would also authorize $100 million over three years
in grants for voluntary home visiting programs for English language learners and military families, as well as a parent and public
education campaign about caring for infants and toddlers. Finally, the legislation would strengthen Early Head Start, which includes
center-based and home visiting components.
Why it’s important: Each year, an estimated 2.7 million children in America are abused or neglected, including
tens of thousands of cases that were never reported and 900,000 cases that were reported and able to be confirmed by overburdened
state child protection systems. More than 1,400 children die from abuse or neglect each year and over half of them were previously
unknown to Child Protective Services. Children who survive abuse or neglect carry the emotional scars for life. The best available
research indicates that, based on the confirmed cases of abuse and neglect in just one year, an additional 35,000 children will become
violent criminals and 250 will become murderers as adults as a direct result of the abuse and neglect they endured.
Fortunately, evidence-based home visiting programs can prevent child abuse and neglect and reduce later crime and violence. For example, one program,
the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), randomly assigned interested at-risk pregnant women to receive visits by nurses starting before the birth of a first
child and continuing until the child was age two. Rigorous research, originally published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows the program
cut abuse and neglect among at-risk kids in half. In addition, children of mothers who received the coaching had 59% fewer arrests by age 15 than the children of
mothers who were not coached.
Other home visiting models also produce positive results. For example, a randomized control trial of the Parents as Teachers model found that
treatment for an injury in the prior year - a possible sign of abuse - was 3% among the children served compared to the 13% of children not served
(at the time of a second year assessment). A randomized control study of the Parent-Child Home Program found that (of the six out of ten children
they were able to follow), 84% of the children finishing the program graduated from high school compared to 54% of those who did not receive the
intervention. Separate studies have concluded that improving graduation rates reduces crime.
Overwhelming unmet need: Every year, over 600,000 low-income women in the U.S. become mothers for the first time, resulting in 1.5 million low-income mothers (who are pregnant or have a child under the age of two) who are eligible for NFP at any given time. The program is only able to serve about 20,000 mothers annually, however, due to a lack of funding. Other programs serve approximately 400,000 additional families. However, hundreds of thousands of at-risk families across the country receive no home visiting or dosages of home visiting that are inadequate to prevent abuse and neglect.
Fiscally responsible: Prevent Child Abuse America estimates that child abuse and neglect cost Americans $94 billion a year. Researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis concluded that NFP produced an average of five dollars in savings for every dollar invested and produced more than $28,000 in net savings for every high-risk family enrolled in the program. Several other home visiting models have also demonstrated positive cost savings.
Legislative recommendations: FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS recommends the enactment and funding of the Education Begins at Home Act this year. We also urge Congress to target funding first toward jurisdictions with the greatest need.
For more information, please contact Miriam Rollin at (202) 776-0027
ext. 143 or miriam@fightcrime.org.
1212 New York Ave. NW, Suite 300