Arkansans soon will have one of the best systems in the nation to help at-risk children during their critical early years through voluntary home visiting. This is good news for families, and an example of sound state investment during these financially difficult times.
Home visiting is a voluntary program that matches parents with trained providers who regularly supply information and support during pregnancy and children’s earliest years. It is proven to help prevent some of the most damaging outcomes experienced by Arkansas’ youths today.
A bipartisan plan to strengthen home visiting in Arkansas, championed by Sen. Ronald Caldwell, and Reps. David Meeks and Warwick Sabin during the just-completed General Assembly, received little public attention compared to some of the more contentious issues before the body. Yet the measure, recently signed by Gov. Mike Beebe, establishes a robust statewide system that creates the conditions for a healthy and prosperous Arkansas in the years to come.
The first few years of life represent a critical development period for all human beings. Many of our country’s costliest social problems, such as child abuse and neglect, school failure, poverty, unemployment and crime, take root during early childhood. Poor nutrition, learning difficulties and neglect must be dealt with early on to prevent long-lasting harm.
Risky behaviors can occur not from parental malice, but from simple inexperience or inaccurate information. We all know that newborns-unfortunately-don’t come equipped with how-to manuals. Home visiting addresses this knowledge gap, with trained personnel who help parents that volunteer to participate in the program. It provides the support some parents need to successfully raise their children.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital has long been involved in trying to protect and improve the lives of young people. Our Natural Wonders Partnership, which includes programs in safety, health literacy and oral health, also funds the Arkansas Home Visiting Network. The new legislation provides a welcome extension of this effort.
Decades of research underscore the positive outcomes of this work.
Studies have found that pregnant mothers who participated in one home-visiting program had 48 percent fewer low-birth-weight babies. This is important because low-birth weight babies have trouble eating, staying warm and fighting infections, and may develop learning disabilities. By avoiding this, the program can reduce medical and education problems, saving the families, taxpayers and the medical system significant long-term costs.
Children who participated in another home-visiting program were better prepared to learn when they entered school and half as likely to repeat first grade as children in a control group.
When properly administered and monitored, home visiting can save public funds by producing healthier families and children, helping children do better in school and avoid repeating grades, and result in fewer children ending up in the costly child welfare, mental health and juvenile corrections systems.
One study found that such a program generated $3.16 in savings per dollar spent by the time the child turns 7.
No wonder that Arkansas’ new law gathered support from policymakers, state agency staff, advocates, home-visiting providers, and leadersin the health-care community, as well as state and national organizations such as Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Arkansas Home Visiting Network, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The recently passed legislation requires that 90 percent of Arkansas’ funding for home visiting be directed to programs that have proven to achieve successful results for children and families. The act, which was approved unanimously in both the Senate and the House, also requires that home-visiting programs track and measure outcomes such as improvements in maternal and infant health, family self-sufficiency and school readiness.
The policy sets forth clear processes for data-sharing and collaboration across all state-funded home-visiting programs, including the departments that oversee home-visiting services: the Arkansas Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board, Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Department of Human Services.
These changes will help ensure that participating families experience strong results and the state receives solid returns on investment for taxpayers.
In Arkansas, we work best when we work together. We can be proud that state agencies, home-visiting providers, both political parties in the Legislature and Gov. Beebe demonstrated our collective commitment to excellence, and to our children’s futures, by working together to strengthen home visiting in our state.
Scott Gordon is executive vice president of Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.
Editorial, Pages 15 on 05/29/2013