As you have undoubtedly already heard, the Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program—MIECHV—was reauthorized for 5 years in the $1.7 trillion end of year package approved by Congress. It was signed into law by President Biden on December 30. This is a game changer!
This reauthorization, named after former Congresswoman and passionate MIECHV supporter, Jackie Walorski, doubles the funding from $400 million annually to $800 million annually over the course of the 5 years. It also doubles the tribal set aside from 3% to 6% and allows for continued virtual services as appropriate.
Now is the time to make sure Parents as Teachers is included in all state MIECHV plans as an eligible grantee. Where PAT is already included, we need to identify how we can grow the capacity of already MIECHV-funded affiliates—including increasing workforce supports—as well as engage other model affiliates in the program.
In addition to MIECHV reauthorization, there was additional good news in the package:
- The FACE program—a 31-year partnership between the Bureau of Indian Education, Parents as Teachers, and National Center for Families Learning—received a $3.6 million bump to $25.3 million “to increase support for existing early child and family development programs and to expand to new programs.”
- Statewide Family Engagement Centers—the successor to Parent Information Resource Centers—are getting a bump from $15 to $20 million.
- The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program received a $1.9 billion increase to $8 billion.
- Head Start and Early Head Start received an increase of $960 million to $12 billion.
- The Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five (PDG B-5) program received an increase of $25 million to $315 million.
- IDEA Part C Grants for Infants and Toddlers received an increase of $43.7 million to $540 million.
There is a lot of opportunity in this new year. Working together, we can leverage these amazing opportunities to partner with more families and young children.