Over the past 20 years, home visitation has emerged as the flagship program through which many states and communities are reaching out to new parents.The presence of bills to advance home visitation in Congress and in state and local legislatures, and the fact that several states and counties are moving forward with comprehensive plans and systematic reforms to improve access to early intervention services and supports for newborns and their parents, signals a propitious convergence of this mature evidence base and the political will to invest more substantially in early intervention. Developing the knowledge base to guide this process is a pressing public policy concern.

This issue brief explores the opportunity to extend high-quality programs to more children and families presented by pending legislation and the mandate to invest in continuous program development and improvement through better quality control of implementations and better evaluation methods. It also highlights the need for a system of early intervention services, of which home visitation is a critical component.

• Download issue brief