Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation

MIHOPE is a multi-state study of home visiting programs authorized under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. The study is required by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), which created the MIECHV program. It is being conducted by MDRC under contract to the Administration for Children and Families within the US Department of Health and Human Services. In conducting the research, MDRC has subcontracted portions of the research to Mathematica Policy Research, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, University of Georgia, and James Bell Associates. MIHOPE randomly assigned 4,229 families nationally to home visiting services or to a comparison group that will receive referrals to other services in the community. The study is seeking to include 88 local home visiting programs (sites) that are funded through MIECHV in approximately 12 states. Data will be collected from families, local home visiting programs, and state and federal administrative data systems to assess the effects of the programs on family outcomes and to learn more about how the programs are run. Sites included in the evaluation will be using one of four national service models (Nurse Family Partnership, Healthy Families America, Parents as Teachers, and Early Head Start-Home Visiting Option) that states have chosen for most of their MIECHV funding. MIHOPE will inform the federal government about the effectiveness of the MIECHV program in its first few years of operation, and it will provide information to help states develop and strengthen home visiting programs in the future. Research findings will be disseminated through a report to Congress in 2015; reports on program impacts, implementation, and on the relationship between program features and program impacts; journal articles; and practitioner briefs.

Inclusion Criteria: * Eligible for home visiting program selected to be in the study * At least 15 years old * Pregnant or have a child under 28 weeks old Exclusion Criteria: * women already enrolled in home visiting (for example, with an older child) * children in foster care in sites using EHS program model * homeless families in sites using EHS program model * women who speak neither English or Spanish