Maternal, infant and early childhood homevisiting grant program

The Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education received a $9.18M Project Grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Grant Program (CFDA 93.870) awarded September 30, 2025, and extending through September 29, 2027. The award funds Alabama's "First Teacher" home visiting program, which delivers evidence-based home visiting services to pregnant women and families with young children from birth through kindergarten entry in at-risk communities across the state. The program implements two federally approved models—Parents as Teachers and Nurse-Family Partnership—through 14 local implementing agencies, with matching federal funds used to strengthen service delivery and expand program reach to maintain coverage in counties served as of fiscal year 2024.

The project aims to achieve nine primary goals focused on improving maternal and newborn health outcomes, preventing child injuries and abuse, enhancing school readiness, reducing intimate partner violence, and supporting family economic self-sufficiency. Key objectives include maintaining or improving performance across six HRSA-defined benchmarks, developing data linkage methodologies to connect home visiting program data with early childhood programs and K-12 educational data to evaluate school readiness and educational performance, and providing technical assistance to local implementing agencies. The program emphasizes comprehensive evaluation of outcomes and promotion of best practices in service delivery to vulnerable populations throughout Alabama.

Abstract

Project title: alabama's maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting (MIECHV) program purpose: this project supports national efforts to ensure high-quality, comprehensive early childhood support statewide for families with children from birth to kindergarten entry. Alabama's first teacher home visiting program will implement the parents as teachers and nurse-family partnership models through 14 local implementing agencies (LIAS). Matching federal funds will be used to strengthen service delivery. Goals and objectives: goal 1: increase enrollment in MIECHV programs to expand effective home visiting. Objective 1.1: maintain service provision in counties served as of FY 2024. Goal 2: improve maternal and newborn health. Objective 2.1: maintain or improve FY2022 outcomes in MIECHV benchmark 1 (HRSA-DEFINED). Goal 3: prevent child injuries, abuse, neglect, and reduce emergency visits. Objective 3.1: maintain or improve FY2022 outcomes in benchmark 2. Goal 4: enhance school readiness and achievement. Objective 4.1: maintain or improve FY2022 outcomes in benchmark 3. Goal 5: reduce intimate partner violence. Objective 5.1: maintain or improve FY2022 outcomes in benchmark 4. Goal 6: support family economic self-sufficiency. Objective 6.1: maintain or improve FY2022 outcomes in benchmark 5. Goal 7: improve coordination and referrals to community resources. Objective 7.1: maintain or improve FY2022 outcomes in benchmark 6. Goal 8: support comprehensive evaluation of project outcomes. Objective 8.1: monitor site performance using alabama's common benchmarks; provide technical assistance. Objective 8.2: develop methods to link first teacher data with other early childhood programs to evaluate school readiness. Objective 8.3: integrate home visiting data with K-12 data to assess educational performance. Goal 9: promote best practices and improved service delivery. Objective 9.1: LIAS will engage in continuous quality improvement (CQI) projects. Approach: the program will serve a proposed caseload of 1,395 families annually, across 39 of alabama's 67 counties, including jefferson, montgomery, mobile, and several rural counties. Services are delivered by 14 LIAS receiving funds during the performance period. Alabama's fthv program does not plan to expand geographic coverage at this time. Instead, IT will use federal matching funds to increase per-family support for the parents as teachers model from $4,200 to $5,000. This increase will allow for stronger service delivery, enhanced staff support, professional development, and improved outcomes for families. The additional resources will help ensure program sustainability and foster long-term impact in key early childhood indicators.