Voluntary home visiting programs designed to help young families got a big boost in the health reform legislation.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act invests $1.5 billion over five years in maternal and child health block grants for home visiting programs, according to Tom Birch, legislative council for the National Child Abuse Coalition. The investment includes $100 million to be spent this year.

From the coalition's analysis:

Priority for services would go to low-income families, including pregnant women under age 21, living in communities in need of services. Eligible families would also include those with:

• a history of child abuse or neglect,
• a history of substance abuse,
• children with low student achievement,
• children with disabilities or developmental delays, and
• family members serving in the military, including those "who have had multiple deployments outside the United States."

Family members eligible for the home visitation services include a child's parents or primary caregivers, such as grandparents or other relatives of the child, foster parents, and a noncustodial parent with an ongoing relationship with the child.

Within the next six months, states will identify communities for the voluntary home visiting programs, including those with high rates of low birth-weight infants and death due to neglect, high poverty and crime rates, high rates of school dropouts and substance abuse and other risk factors.

Home visiting programs "pair new and expectant parents with trained professionals to provide parenting information, resources and support during pregnancy and throughout their child's first three years," according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. "Quality programs are proven to strengthen parent-child relationships, increase development of early language and literacy skills, and reduce child abuse and neglect-positive outcomes that will help ease the strain on state resources and produce fiscal returns in the long-run."