Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program: Evidence-based home visiting programs in a comprehensive early childhood system

On March 23, 2010, the President signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Affordable Care Act) (P.L. 111-148). The Affordable Care Act, through an amendment of Title V of the Social Security Act, authorizes the creation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) to facilitate and support collaboration and partnership at the Federal, state, and community levels to improve health and development outcomes for at-risk children through evidence-based home visiting programs. At the Federal level, the program is administered through collaboration between the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

This session will describe the MIECHV program and the purposes of the MIECHV legislation. MIECHV includes grants to states and six jurisdictions; and grants to Indian Tribes, Tribal Organizations, and Urban Indian Organizations. For both types of grants, the legislation requires that grantees demonstrate improvement in six benchmark areas: 1. Improved maternal and newborn health; 2. Prevention of child injuries, child abuse, neglect, or maltreatment, and reduction of emergency department visits; 3. Improvement in school readiness and achievement; 4. Reduction in crime or domestic violence; 5. Improvements in family economic self-sufficiency; and 6. Improvements in the coordination and referrals for other community resources and supports.

MIECHV is an evidence-based policy initiative and progress on implementation of the program with 9 evidence based home visiting models will be described.