The Oklahoma State Department of Health received more than $9.5 million to expand access to home-visiting services that support maternal and child health.
The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program provides funding to states, jurisdictions and nonprofits to pair families with limited support and resources with trained home visitors.
Nurses, social workers and educators can meet with parents one-on-one from pregnancy through their child’s entry into kindergarten. These voluntary, evidence-based services are meant to help support families’ health, education, development and economic self-sufficiency.
The program supports three home-visiting models in Oklahoma:
- Children First: This program focuses on low-income first-time pregnant mothers with services continuing through their child’s second birthday. Nurses provide education on pregnancy, labor and delivery, parenting skills and support clients in accomplishing personal life goals through home visits.
- Parents as Teachers: This program targets pregnant women and any primary caregiver until the child completes kindergarten. It’s designed to maximize children’s development by laying a foundation for school success and minimizing developmental issues. Visits focus on parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting and family well-being.
- SafeCare: This program serves families with children between birth and age five. It works to improve parents’ skills and prevent child abuse and neglect by addressing things like infant and child interaction, health care and home safety.
During the 2025 fiscal year, 924 households in Oklahoma, Tulsa and Comanche Counties were served through 12,024 home visits.
The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program has been proven to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, improve infant and child health and school readiness, decrease incidence of child neglect, and promote family well-being and stability.
Erica Rankin-Riley, a spokesperson for the State Department of Health, said in an email that the agency plans to use this new funding to continue growing home-visiting services in other Oklahoma communities.
As of Oct. 1, expansion dollars have gone to support services in Stephens, Jefferson, Ellis, Dewey, Woodward, Adair and McIntosh Counties.
“These expansions reflect OSDH’s ongoing efforts to increase access to evidence-based home-visiting services for families in rural communities with limited access throughout Oklahoma,” Rankin-Riley said.
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