Two and a half months ago, Congress missed the deadline to reauthorize federal support for home visiting. The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV, pronounced McVee) is, as we wrote two years ago, “one of the most innovative government programs you’ve probably never heard of.”

Home visiting consists of visits from social workers, parent educators, or registered nurses to low-income families with pregnant mothers or infants in the home.

Gaps in child development open up very early, in part because of a “parenting gap.” Home visiting attempts to narrow these gaps, by providing what we have elsewhere labeled “pre-pre-K” services.

Though the current lapse suggests otherwise, MIECHV usually enjoys broad bipartisan support. The federal government began providing a modest level of funding for home visiting during the Bush Administration. Congress greatly expanded federal support in 2010 with the passage of MIECHV, which provides grants for home visiting programs in states, territories, and tribal communities.

Read the full article on home visiting by Richard V. Reeves and Katherine Guyot at Brookings