MARYLAND FAMILY NETWORK

Public Policy

Comprehensive Services for Young Children and their Families

The parents of young children today are often unsure where to turn when their children need help. Faced with a complex array of public and private services, many parents just give up. The demands of their busy lives, and even the need to stay beside a child with an illness or other difficulty, keep families from using available services, and when they want help there are often gaps in services to children and families.

In addition, new parents lack many of the supports available to families in the past and need alternative methods for obtaining the skills and emotional support required to raise healthy, successful children. Parenting education is an important service that is currently offered in a piecemeal fashion for only the most at-risk families. These critical services can and should be provided for as many families as possible through a variety of public, private, and nonprofit agencies and organizations.

Research indicates that parents who have a basic understanding of child development, and can base their expectations of their children on developmentally appropriate behaviors, raise children who are more likely to be and feel successful as they grow to adulthood. These children are also less likely to be abused or neglected. Recent brain research indicates that parents and other caregivers who are educated in child development issues more frequently demonstrate parenting skills that result in more active, developing brains. Parent education from any source plays an important role in not only preventing the mistreatment of vulnerable children, but also in developing healthy, active brains in young children.

While vital, parenting education is just one of an array of services that may benefit new and at-risk families and their children. Others may include early identification and intervention to address special needs, integrated early education services, health-related services, and more general adult education. Neighborhood hubs may be the best means of delivering comprehensive services for children and their families.

Maryland's network of Family Support Centers, administered by FOF/MCC, is the leading provider of such services. In the budget crisis of 2003, the $6.9 million budget for Friends of the Family was cut by more than $2 million, forcing the closure of six of the 32 Family Support Centers.

In the 2005 Session of the General Assembly, funding for Family Support Centers was once again in jeopardy. The Governor proposed to cut the program by $800,000, but following the transfer of the State contract to MSDE, the funding was restored. In the 2006 Session, the General Assembly approved an increase of $450,000 in funding for Family Support Centers and expressed its intent via budget language that the funding be fully restored in future fiscal years. Unfortunately, that intent has yet to be realized. In October 2008, the Board of Public Works cut $250,000 from the budget for Family Support Centers.

(For information on the State’s Judy Centers, see the “Early Childhood Development and Education” section.)

Position

FOF/MCC should support funding for parenting education and support activities. As Maryland's Family Support Centers have developed innovative approaches to working with teen parents and other at risk families, FOF/ MCC should lead efforts to restore funding for the centers to ensure that they are part of the interagency efforts to provide community services to at-risk children and their families. FOF/MCC should also monitor the progress of Judy Centers as a model for providing comprehensive services geared toward school readiness.