Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois - Child Abuse and Neglect Policy

CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT POLICY

Every day, hundreds of Illinois children are terrorized by abuse and neglect. In Illinois, there were 29,150 confirmed victims of abuse and neglect, 4,229 children removed from their homes, and 85 confirmed deaths from abuse and neglect in 2004.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois calls on the State of Illinois to fund programs proven to cut abuse and neglect.

2008 (FY09) Policy Recommendations:

Reinforce the Role of Parents As Their Child’s First Teacher
Without the support of extended families and robust communities, many new and expecting parents feel isolated and unprepared even though they are their children’s most important teachers. Low-income parents, particularly, face hurdles just to provide the necessities of life for their children. There are a number of model programs that provide voluntary intensive home-visiting and parent education. Reaching more at-risk families with these proven programs can cut child abuse and neglect significantly.

A. Prevent child abuse and neglect and help more parents to promote healthy child development and nurture social-emotional development—key components of early learning—by increasing funding for evidenced based intensive home visiting program in the Illinois Department of Human Services. FY 2009 budget request: Increase appropriation by $10 million.

B. Support increase in the birth to three set aside to 20 percent under Illinois’ Preschool for All initiative as the means to significantly decrease child abuse and neglect and increase home visiting programs. The current birth to three set aside of 11 percent of the Early Childhood Block Grant is inadequate to fund the programs Illinois needs. This year 145 programs applied and only six could be funded with the resources available. We urge support for legislation setting a goal to increase the set-aside to 20% of the Early Childhood Block Grant by FY 2014.