Two recent large federal investments in services for pregnant women and young children fuel the expansion of home visiting services and present opportunities and challenges to the existing early childhood service delivery systems at the state and local levels. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start services, with $1.1 billion focused on expansion of services beginning in the prenatal period through 3 years. Weekly home visiting coupled with monthly group socialization activities for parents and their children is expected to be the primary service delivery approach for many of these children and their families.
This article summarizes the history of home visiting and how the development and adoption of different program models emerged, and it looks head to the challenges and opportunities states face as new federal resources are devoted to supporting home visiting.
