H-7127 FY27 DOH & EOHHS Budgets
H-7794 (Giraldo) & S-2845 (Valverde)
Rhode Island’s Evidence-Based Family Home Visiting programs — Healthy Families America and Parents as Teachers — are multi-year, relationship-based interventions designed to help pregnant and parenting families with high needs navigate the challenges of raising babies and young children. These programs follow rigorous research models and produce improved outcomes for children and families including significant reductions in child maltreatment and language delays; and improvements in maternal mental health, parental education/employment, and school readiness.
First Connections is Rhode Island’s frontline, rapid-response home visiting service for families with newborns statewide. It is designed to identify babies’ and families’ needs as early as possible and connect them with services, including maternal mental health services, WIC, Early Intervention, and comprehensive evidence-based family home visiting programs.
Financing & Staffing Problems Mean Fewer Rhode Island Babies & Families Get Help
Since 2021, the number of families served by First Connections has dropped by 51% and the number of families enrolled in a multi-year, evidence-based program has dropped by 32% due to inadequate staffing and financing.
Rhode Island Policymakers Should Invest in Family Home Visiting:
- Increase the Medicaid rates to OHIC recommendations for First Connections, Healthy Families America, and Parents as Teachers family home visiting programs to ensure staffing and financing challenges do not get worse.
- Fund the minimum state home visiting match each year to bring in all available federal Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) funds to improve access to family home Rhode Island is one of only a handful of states that has forfeited federal funds.
- Pass Rep. Giraldo’s and Senator Valverde’s bill to establish First Connections in statute, implement Medicaid rate increases, meet the minimum state match, and update state reporting
Click here for a PDF of the Fund Family Home Visiting 2026 fact sheet.
