Prevent Child Abuse New York's Blog

Healthy Families New York Home Visiting Continued in Governor's Proposed Budget

We are deeply pleased that Governor Cuomo’s budget includes $23.3 million for Healthy Families New York Home Visiting, allowing the program to continue improving the lives of vulnerable children and families in some of the state’s highest need communities.

The voluntary prenatal - early childhood program has a proven track record of better outcomes for children. Through guidance and support for at-risk expectant and new mothers in 39 high-risk communities, it begins at the earliest opportunity to improve children’s health, safety and learning.

The program’s statewide system of training, site support and evaluation assures the program’s quality and effectiveness. Cost savings begin immediately, with healthier babies delivered, and continue for years as children do better in school.

At the same time as we applaud this year’s continuation of services, we also look toward future expansion of support for New York’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens. Our system of home visiting services still serves only a small percentage of those who would benefit. We can and should build on the existing system by increasing the availability of other proven home visiting programs like Nurse Family Partnership, Parents As Teachers and Parent-Child-Home, as well as Healthy Families New York.

The prenatal and earliest childhood period provides a critical window of opportunity. The profound impact of infants’ health at birth and the care they receive - or don’t receive - during the first three years lasts throughout their lives. Regular visits by trained home visitors during this time shifts the trajectory of families’ lives and lays a strong foundation for children’s future, thereby preventing problems that require expensive intervention and remediation.

Greater investment in evidence-based and promising home visiting programs in New York State will strengthen families, improve children’s wellbeing and development, and save taxpayers money.

2012 NYS Child Abuse Prevention Conference: Call for Workshop Proposals

Prevent Child Abuse New York is pleased to announce Diverse Paths, Common Dreams, the 2012 New York State Child Abuse Prevention Conference . Our 17th annual event will be held April 16-18, 2012, at the Marriott Hotel in Albany. Plenary session speakers Include:

• Victor Bernstein, PhD., School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, It Sounds So Easy but It's So Hard To Do: Developing Effective  Working Relationships with Families Living in Difficult Circumstances
• Donna Beegle, Ed.D., Speaker, Trainer & Author, Communication Across Barriers, We CAN Make a Difference for Children and Families Living in the Crisis of Proverty
• Bryan Specht, Founder, Promised Land Society and Awful Grace Project, National Board Member, Prevent Child Abuse America, Awful Grace: Resiliency, Wisdom, and the Hope of Prevention
  

We are now accepting workshop proposals  that focus on developing the knowledge and expertise needed by practitioners in today’s complex environment. Preference is given to presentations that are highly interactive, include strategies to engage the audience, and leave participants with new skills and learning they can immediately put to use in their jobs, in their homes, and in their communities.

Workshop tracks include:

• Parent/Caregiver Education and Support
• Effective Prevention Strategies
• Skills for Direct Services Provision
• Collaboration and Implementation within and across Systems
• Not-for-Profit Management and Leadership
  

For more information and instructions for submitting a proposal, please refer to the Call for Workshop Proposals .

The deadline for submission has been extended to December 16, 2011. Please email or call Jennifer Dailey, jdailey@preventchildabuseny.org, 518-445-1273, with any questions.

Spotlight on Advocating for Child Abuse Prevention

As summer comes to an official close and we prepare for the difficult advocacy season ahead, we'd like to share the recent successes and future direction of our Kids Can't Wait advocacy campaign.

Our advocacy took on a fast and furious pace in 2011 when the governor’s budget proposal eliminated funding for the Healthy Families New York home visiting program, the NYS Children and Family Trust Fund, kinship care services and a number of other prevention programs.

Three months of intense work and a steady drumbeat of messages and legislative visits with colleagues, advocates and supporters led to success for Healthy Families New York, which was fully restored to last year’s funding level of $23.3 million. Thousands of at-risk infants and toddlers will continue to receive these critical, life changing home visiting services. Funding for the Children and Family Trust Fund, kinship care services and other prevention programs was also restored, but unfortunately only at 50 percent of last year’s level.

This year also saw successful passage of a law that makes Family Assessment Response (FAR) in child protective services permanent and expands this alternative response to any county that chooses to use it. FAR focuses on engaging and assisting families, providing child protective services with flexibility to provide immediate assessment and services for some cases that are reported to the Hotline. The traditional investigative track is required for reports where a child’s safety is of serious concern.

As the Governor’s 2012-13 Executive Budget is being prepared and during the 2012 Legislative Session, we will continue our work to maintain and expand funding for evidence-based home visiting, as well as other child abuse prevention programs. We are now preparing our 2012 Legislative Agenda, issues and bills we support or oppose in order to better protect children. Among the items we’re examining: the Child Victim Act, which would extend the statute of limitations for prosecution of sex offenses against children and provide a one year “window” for civil action against an offender; a possible amendment to Family Assessment Response legislation regarding access to child protective records; how allegations of child abuse within an education setting are reported and investigated; and a recently introduced Protect Our Children Act, which would make numerous changes to criminal law in cases of seriously abused and endangered children.

Cuts to Healthy Families New York Will Cost Us Dearly

While I was happy to recently read about the successes Mt. Hope Family Center’s Building Healthy Children, a few days later the Governor’s budget proposal was revealed, and with it the complete elimination of funding for New York’s largest program that uses similar means to achieve similar outcomes.

The science of preventing negative childhood experiences, such as abuse, neglect and pre-term birth, before they happen is called primary prevention. Healthy Families New York has been a leading primary prevention program in New York state for sixteen years, and has fantastic data proving that mothers who enroll in it experience fewer low birth weight deliveries, lower rates of substance abuse and depression, and are less likely to abuse or neglect a child, even if they have abused or neglected a child in the past. After seven years, mothers who enroll in the program are less likely to have their child repeat a grade or receive special-education services, and they are more likely to have a child in a gifted program.

It is wonderful to give lip service to things like child abuse prevention and school readiness, but by eliminating funding to primary prevention programs, the governor’s budget actually costs us money in the short and long term. Healthy Families NY has been proven to save $50 in taxpayer money per family enrolled the year the family enrolls, and those savings increase as time goes by. The program has served between 4000-5000 families throughout the state in the last few years, so the savings are considerable. Leading economists have agreed that the best way to stimulate long-term economic growth is to invest in evidence-based early childhood programs such as Healthy Families NY.

In his race to close this year’s budget gap, the governor has managed to cut so deep as to lacerate a system that already saves us money. And he is doing it by dooming thousands of children to suffering needlessly throughout their lives.

Governor Cuomo's Budget Proposal Eliminates Funding for Healthy Families New York

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed state budget eliminates funding for one of New York’s most cost-effective and cost-savings programs, Healthy Families New York home visiting. This proposal would dismantle a program that has a proven record of preventing child abuse and also would make New York ineligible for federal grants that would improve the lives of more of our states’ most vulnerable children and families.

Healthy Families New York (HFNY) serves at-risk pregnant and new mothers in 38 of the state’s highest need communities. Cost savings begin immediately with healthier babies delivered, and continue for years with fewer incidents of child abuse, lower child welfare costs, and greater success in school leading to less need for special education services.

“We are dismayed that the Governor proposes ending the Healthy Families New York program, given the proven outcomes for children and the potential for significant additional federal funding for the state,” said Christine Deyss, Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse New York. “This action would undo 16 years of work to develop one of the best state systems for early childhood home visiting in the country.”

A seven-year randomized trial evaluation of HFNY demonstrates:

• Low birth weight deliveries are reduced.
• Children’s preventive health care is improved.
• Physical abuse is reduced and parents’ use of non-violent discipline increased.
• Parents at the highest risk have fewer founded cases of abuse and neglect.
• Fewer children need special education or repeat a grade.
• More children do well on standardized test and are in gifted programs.

The average annual cost to provide HFNY services to a family is about $4,600. For low birth weight babies, additional medical costs in the first year of life range from $25,000 to $90,000, primarily paid by Medicaid and state sponsored insurance plans. The average annual cost to the state for foster care for a child who has been abused is more than $24,000; total federal, state and local expenditures on child welfare services in our state are approximately $2.7 billion. Special education services more than double the cost of a child’s education.

For families who had prior histories of child abuse or neglect, the program generated a return of more than $3 for every dollar spent in seven years, due to reduced involvement with the child welfare system and other government programs.

Prevent Child Abuse New York brought Healthy Families New York to the state, and we'll continue to fight to keep the program going. We need all the help we can get! Please join our movement to reinstate funding for HFNY. You can start by signing up for our e-newsletters and action alerts so you can stay up-to-date on the latest developments in what will surely be a long and difficult struggle on behalf of New York's most vulnerable children.

New Study Finds Healthy Families New York to be a Great Investment in Children and Their Families

A new study by the state Office of Children and Family Services and the State University of New York shows that Healthy Families New York (HFNY) has had a profound impact on the lives of children and their families; resulting in fewer incidents of child abuse, fewer low birth weight babies and greater success in school for kids whose mothers participated.

HFNY believes strongly in enhancing the healthy child development of all children in New York and the program promotes optimal child health, connecting families with medical providers for prenatal and well-baby visits and immunizations. It also helps parents to develop strong, positive relationships with their children and assesses children for developmental delays.

From the time the program began in 1995 through the end of 2009, HFNY provided 777,000 home visits to more than 25,760 families. Participants are screened to identify risk factors and stressors the family may face. Each family is offered long-term in-home services until the child is in school or Head Start.

The findings of the seven-year randomized controlled trial include the following:

• Across the seven years, mothers who received HFNY reported many fewer incidents of serious physical abuse than mothers in a control group did.
• At ages 2, 3, and 7, young, first-time mothers who entered the program early in pregnancy consistently reported and were repeatedly observed using lower levels of harsh parenting as compared to their counterparts in the control group.
• From the study’s start through age seven, HFNY mothers who had substantiated child maltreatment reports prior to random assignment had markedly lower rates of involvement in confirmed CPS reports for neglect (38% vs. 57%), confirmed reports for physical abuse (3% vs. 13%), and preventive, protective, and placement services (38% vs. 60%) as compared to a subset of similar women from the control group.
• Overall, HFNY mothers were more likely to be observed using parenting strategies that stimulated the child’s cognitive skills and to report using nonviolent discipline strategies.
• Children in HFNY were more likely to participate in a gifted program at school, less likely to receive special education services, and less likely to report skipping school. Educational advantages were even more striking among children born to first-time mothers under age 19 who were offered HFNY in early pregnancy. These children were half as likely to repeat a grade and considerably less likely to score below average on a standardized vocabulary test.
• In addition to impacts on parenting and children’s education, women who enrolled in HFNY at or before 30 weeks of pregnancy were about half as likely to deliver low birth weight babies. This effect was especially notable among black and Latina mothers, two groups that persistently experience high levels of poor birth outcomes.

In terms of dollars and cents, the study also found that with mothers who had histories of engaging in child abuse or neglect, Healthy Families New York generated a return of more than $3 for every dollar spent due to reduced involvement with the child welfare system and other government programs.

Post Standard on Healthy Families New York: This Program Works

More terrific news for Healthy Families New York, a state-administered child abuse prevention program that provides home visiting services to at-risk families. The Syracuse Post Standard recently published an editorial praising the program and its successes. The editorial is a response to new research finding that the program resulted in fewer incidents of child abuse, fewer low-birth-weight babies and greater success in school for kids whose mothers participated.

From the editorial:

That's just the kind of thing New York should be investing in ... A worthy, socially beneficial program that actually saves money. New York needs more just like it.

Indeed. Despite its successes, Healthy Families New York is available to only a fraction of the families who need it. Let's get to work, New York, so all our kids have an opportunity at a healthy and successful future.

Great News for Healthy Families New York

Healthy Families New York (HFNY), a program that provides in-home parenting education and support services to at-risk families with infants, can now claim another feather in its. cap. A seven-year randomized trial of the program shows many impressive findings, including:

• Reductions in child abuse reports for families with prior child protective services involvement. Also, HFNY mothers reported engaging in serious physical abuse less frequently than mothers in the control group. HFNY children were also less likely to report that their mothers used minor physical aggression. In addition, reductions in psychological and minor physical aggression were observed for a subgroup of young, first-time mothers, who enrolled in HFNY during pregnancy
• Direct benefits to children: Compared to children in the control group, HFNY children were more likely to participate in a gifted program, and less likely to receive special education services and to skip school. In addition, HFNY children in the subgroup of young, first-time mothers enrolled during pregnancy were less likely to score below average on a standardized vocabulary assessment and to repeat a grade.
• By age seven, participant earnings and savings from monetized benefits such as receipt of welfare and use of the child welfare system generated a return of more than $3.00 for every dollar invested in the subgroup of families with prior CPS involvement.

Prevent Child Abuse New York brought HFNY to the state and continues to fight to sustain and expand its funding. With a difficult budget battle ahead, we hope these findings will bolster our argument that Healthy Families New York and other home visiting programs are a wise investment in the health and well being of New York's kids and the future prosperity of our state.

Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visiting Website

The Children's Bureau has launched a website for Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visiting. The website includes findings from 17 cooperative agreements "to support the infrastructure needed for the widespread adoption, implementation and sustaining of evidence-based home visitation programs" and a cross-site evaluation. Resources are available in the form of archived webinars, newsletters, and research documentation.

The Costs of Disinvestment: Why States Can't Afford to Cut Smart Early Childhood Programs

As New York and other states continue to struggle with budget shortfalls that have placed programs that focus on early childhood on the chopping block, we'd like to mention a recent issue brief from the Partnership for American's Economic Success (PAES), part of the Pew Center on the States. The brief offers policymakers a succinct argument for maintaining and even increasing investments in early childhood as a strategy for smart budgeting during the economic downturn. PAES highlights the demonstrated economic gains in both the short term and the long term of supporting early childhood investments with solid examples from states.

Quite simply, children are our future. Investing in their success is perhaps the best way to guarantee future prosperity. Budget cuts that deprive children of a strong developmental start mean society and taxpayers lose too.

Effective pre-k programs reduce costly grade retention and special education services. Each child that is held back a grade costs the state $16,000 per year. 

Better-prepared pre-k graduates make kindergarten teachers more effective, which reduces costs because ready learners have a tendency to reduce teacher turnover, as well as enabling the whole class to learn more and progress more quickly.

Programs that start children on the path to successful adulthood—such as early education and parent support/home visiting—spur the workforce development in multiple ways.

Read "The Cost of State Disinvestment: Why states Can't Afford to Cut Smart Early Childhood Programs."