MIHOPE Newsletter January 2018

January 2018

The last update from the MIHOPE team, sent in March 2017, shared the news that MDRC, along with subcontractors Mathematica Policy Research and the University of Georgia, had been awarded a contract by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to design a long-term follow-up study of MIHOPE participants. Through this long-term follow-up, known as MIHOPE-LT, the research team will study the impacts of Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV)-funded programs over an extended time period.
 
In 2017, the research team made progress on the overall design of MIHOPE-LT, which calls for multiple follow-up points — specifically, when the participating children are in kindergarten, third grade, early adolescence, and late adolescence.
 
In designing the follow-up study, the team has considered evidence from prior home visiting studies as well as the broader literature in the domains of:
  • Child development
  • School readiness
  • Child health
  • Maternal health
  • Family economic self-sufficiency
  • Parenting
  • Child maltreatment
  • Juvenile delinquency
  • Family violence
  • Crime
The team has also solicited input from multiple stakeholders, including model developers, MIECHV awardees, and federal staff, as well as research and program experts in such areas as home visiting, child development, parenting, child maltreatment, and family economic self-sufficiency, and incorporated their helpful feedback into the study design.
 
Thank you again to everyone who provided input!
 
As the last MIHOPE update mentioned, plans for the longer-term data collection will be described more fully in a design report, which will be released later this year.
 
Invitation to comment on plans for kindergarten data collection
 
Children of MIHOPE families will be entering kindergarten this year, and the study team is currently finalizing plans for kindergarten data collection. The first Federal Register Notice for the MIHOPE-LT kindergarten follow-up, which invites comments on the design and data collection activities, was posted today (January 30, 2018) and can be found here. If you would like to comment on the kindergarten data collection, please follow the instructions in the Federal Register Notice.
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