As part of the comprehensive health care legislation, Congress provided $1.5 billion over 5 years for the Early Childhood Home Visiting Program. The funding is to be used for high quality, evidence-based, voluntary early childhood home visitation services.

Eligibility

An eligible family includes a pregnant mother, and the father if available; or the parent or primary caregiver of a child from birth to entry into kindergarten. Priority is given to high-risk children and families described in the law as:

• Low-income families,
• Pregnant women not yet 21 years old,
• Families with histories of child abuse or neglect and/or involvement with the child welfare services,
• Families with a history of substance abuse or in need of treatment or who use tobacco products in the home,
• Children with low student achievement and/or developmental delays or disabilities,
• Families who had a member serve in the Armed Forces, or have had multiple deployments outside the country.

Read more: Home Visiting in a Nutshell

All states are required to participate in the federal Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) that measures outcomes in child welfare agencies.

While there is no specific measure for father involvement, there are several proxies under a Child Well-Being Outcome that include:

• the worker's assessment of parental needs,
• the family's involvement in case planning, and
• the worker's visits with children and with parents.

State child welfare agencies performed poorly on these measures in the first round of the CFSRs; even when the performance was rated as a "strength" it was applicable to mothers, not fathers.

The second round of the CFSRs is currently underway, and reviews completed to date indicate that states are doing even worse than the first round in the area of father involvement.

Read more: Are you meeting CFSR requirements for Father Involvement?

Summer is generally a more relaxed time of year, so it's a good time to:

• catch up on reading,
• discover new resources,
• take an online class, and
• register for conferences.

IFPS Webinar—Tuesday, June 29

Read more: Summer Activities

Intensive Family Preservation Services have been widely used, replicated, and studied for nearly three decades. There is general agreement that these services:

• have an excellent record of child safety and keeping families together,
• provide a wide array of services with emphasis on building skills,
• improve family functioning,
• free up social workers to work with families whose children are in out-of-home placements,
• report high levels of satisfaction from program participants, and
• are cost-effective when compared to out-of-home placement costs.

Read more: Is Cutting IFPS in a Budget Crisis a Good Idea?