Maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting is a strategy that shows evidence of reducing child abuse and neglect, improving birth outcomes, improving health and development, and promoting school readiness and learning.

What You Need To Know

  • Raising NY is a coalition of business, education, civil rights and child advocacy organizations dedicated to increasing the number of children who are on track for school readiness

  • Home visitation services have been proven effective when it comes to improving a range of outcomes, including reducing child abuse and neglect

  • The Raising NY coalition wants to explain the state's home visiting capacity to serve more families

Yet New York State only has the current capacity to serve 17,509 children, the equivalent of 6 percent of babies in low-income families and 3 percent of all children age zero to three.

“You can’t transform a child’s life without transforming the parents’ lives,” Kate Breslin, president and CEO of the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy told Spectrum News.

The Schuyler Center joined a diverse coalition of groups including the Business Council of New York State, the United Way and Education Trust-New York called “Raising NY," which is dedicated to increasing the number of children who are on track for school readiness.

“There is very clear evidence that if a parent is either stressed or has mental health concerns, or is dealing with addiction or is just stressed, there are physical, emotional and mental impacts on the child,” Breslin said.

Home visitation programs have shown results that include a return on public investment of over $5 per dollar spent, a reduction in child abuse and neglect, and improved birth outcomes and school readiness.

For more information visit RaisingNY.org.