A. The department shall provide statewide home visiting services using a standards-based program and promulgate rules governing the program.

B. The department shall fund only standards-based home visiting programs that include periodic home visits to improve the health, well-being and self-sufficiency of eligible families. The department may prioritize funding for programs associated with strong evidence of effectiveness and for programs that serve high-risk populations.

C. A home visiting program shall provide culturally and linguistically appropriate, face-to-face visits by nurses, social workers and other early childhood and health professionals or by trained and supervised lay workers.

D. A home visiting program shall do two or more of the following:

(1) improve prenatal, maternal, infant or child health outcomes, including reducing preterm births;

(2) promote positive parenting practices;

(3) build healthy parent and child relationships;

(4) enhance children's social-emotional and language development;

(5) support children's cognitive and physical development;

(6) improve the health of eligible families;

(7) provide resources and supports that may help to reduce child maltreatment and injury;

(8) increase children's readiness to succeed in school; and

(9) improve coordination of referrals for, and the provision of, other community resources and supports for eligible families.

E. The department shall develop internal processes that provide for a greater ability to collaborate with other state agencies, local governments and private entities and share relevant home visiting data and information. The processes may include a uniform format for the collection of data relevant to each home visiting program.

F. The department shall enter into a joint powers agreement with the human services department to use medicaid to finance department-approved, evidence-based home visiting programs. Providers approved for medicaid home visiting are subject to the Home Visiting Accountability Act.

G. When the department authorizes funds through payments, contracts or grants that are used for home visiting programs, it shall include language regarding home visiting in its funding agreement contract or grant that is consistent with the provisions of the Home Visiting Accountability Act.

H. Beginning January 1, 2020 and annually thereafter, the department shall submit to the governor and the legislature an annual outcomes report that includes:

(1) the goals and achieved outcomes of the home visiting system implemented pursuant to the Home Visiting Accountability Act; and

(2) data regarding:

(a) the cost per eligible family served;

(b) the number of eligible families served;

(c) demographic data on eligible families served;

(d) the duration of participation by eligible families in the program;

(e) the number and type of programs that the department has funded;

(f) any increases in school readiness, child development and literacy;

(g) decreases in child maltreatment or child abuse;

(h) any reductions in risky parental behavior;

(i) the percentage of children receiving regular well-child exams, as recommended by the American academy of pediatrics;

(j) the percentage of infants on schedule to be fully immunized by age two;

(k) the number of children who received an ages and stages questionnaire and what percent scored age appropriately in all developmental domains;

(l) the number of children identified with potential developmental delay and, of those, how many began services within two months of the screening; and

(m) the percentage of children receiving home visiting services who are enrolled in high-quality licensed child care programs.

History: Laws 2013, ch. 118, § 3; 2019, ch. 48, § 29.

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2020, authorized the early childhood education and care department to prioritize funding for programs associated with strong evidence of effectiveness and programs that serve high-risk populations, required the department to enter into a joint powers agreement with the human services department to use medicaid to finance department-approved home visiting programs, and required the department to submit an annual report to the governor and the legislature regarding the home visiting system implemented pursuant to the Home Visiting Accountability Act; in Subsection B, added the last sentence; in Subsection E, after "department shall", deleted "work with the early learning advisory council and"; added a new Subsection F and redesignated former Subsection F as Subsection G; deleted former Subsection G, which related to home visiting program evaluation; and in Subsection H, changed "2014" to "2020", after "department shall", deleted "produce an annual outcomes report" and added "submit", and after "the legislature", deleted "and the early learning advisory council".