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EDUCATION BEGINS AT HOME ACT LETTER

August 3, 2007

Dear Senator:

The 3,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and victims of violence of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS know from the front lines - and the research - that preventing child abuse and neglect is one of our strongest weapons in the fight against crime. To help stop the cycle of child abuse and neglect and later crime, we urge you to co-sponsor the bipartisan Education Begins at Home Act (S. 667).

Child abuse and neglect increases by 29 percent the likelihood that an at-risk child will commit a violent crime when he or she grows up. Fortunately, quality, voluntary home visiting can help stop this cycle of violence. Home visiting programs help new parents get the information, skills and support they need to be better parents and promote healthy child development.

For example, the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) home visiting program randomly assigned interested at-risk pregnant women to receive in-home visits by nurses starting before the birth of the 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 children in half and cut arrests up to age 15 by 60%. NFP also cut the percentage of children who had language delays by more than half. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis researchers concluded that NFP produced an average of five dollars in savings for every dollar invested.

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). Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of at-risk families nationwide do not have access to home visiting.

The Education Begins at Home Act would authorize $500 million over three years to expand the reach of voluntary, quality home visiting and authorize a parent and public education campaign about caring for infants and toddlers. We urge you to co-sponsor the Education Begins at Home Act and move it to enactment this year. Investing in this proven crime-prevention approach now will save lives and money down the road.

David S. Kass
President

Miriam A. Rollin
Vice President