Preserve home-visit funds for kids’ sake

For law-enforcement officers and prosecutors, it’s a harrowing experience to come face to face with child abuse and neglect. As Kane County sheriff and state’s attorney, we agree that some of the most troubling cases our offices encounter involve children who are subject to abuse, neglect or endangerment at the hands of an adult.

Illinois had more than 26,000 confirmed incidents of child abuse and neglect in 2010, and Kane County authorities investigated 3,700 suspected cases the same year. At least 73 Illinois children died as a result of maltreatment. Our responsibility to those victims starts far before the police are called. Efforts to save child victims must start earlier.

Parenting does not come with an instruction manual. One approach that does work to prevent child abuse is voluntary home visiting programs. Through these services, trained home visitors coach new parents to help them to learn about their child’s emotional, physical and psychological development and deal with the stresses that inevitably come with child rearing. And this approach can be remarkably effective in preventing abuse and neglect.

For example, a study of one home visiting model, the Nurse-Family Partnership, found that participation in the program cut abuse and neglect among at-risk kids nearly in half. In addition, children of mothers who received NFP coaching had 60 percent fewer arrests by age 15 than the children of mothers who were not coached.

Children who survive abuse or neglect carry the emotional scars for life. The best available research indicates that of the 26,000 confirmed incidents each year, more than 1,100 Illinois children will become violent criminals as adults as a direct result of the abuse and neglect they endured. In Kane County, the state’s attorney’s office estimates that at least 40 percent of the cases we charge involve a defendant who learned abusive behavior as a child or who was abused and neglected as a child.

Child abuse and neglect is incredibly expensive. The cost of funding home visiting is far less than the cost of doing nothing. The direct costs to Illinois taxpayers of federal, state and local child welfare spending reached $1.24 billion in Illinois in 2006.

Because it can help reduce child abuse, later crime and other costly outcomes, home visiting programs offer a significant return on investment. Analysis from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy showed that the Nurse-Family Partnership program produced a net return of more than $13,000 for each family served.

Illinois has positive momentum for supporting home visitation services since the state was awarded a federal grant to expand these services in six communities. We’ve already received $19 million from this grant and could end up with twice that amount. Elgin is one of the six communities and can expect to serve hundreds more families with funding from the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting grant program.

However, that opportunity is in jeopardy. If the General Assembly accepts Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to cut $2.28 million from home visiting programs in the state budget, Illinois will lose the federal money, which requires that the state keep level funding for home visiting.

We urge the General Assembly to hold the line on home visiting in the state budget in order to take advantage of this real opportunity to save lives and break the cycle of violence in families. By walking away from this federal grant, Illinois will lose millions more in federal funding than it stands to save by cutting home visiting. Let’s not forget: the real tragedy is turning our backs on the 26,000 children abused in this state at risk every year.

Ÿ Pat Perez is Kane County’s sheriff. Joe McMahon is Kane County state’s attorney.