Thank You to Sheriff Mike Haley

I commend Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley for cutting through the heated rhetoric surrounding health care reform, choosing instead to focus on an aspect of the new legislation that will have a positive effect on every citizen of Washoe County. As pointed out by Haley, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act creates a $1.5 billion grant program for voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs to support young children and their families.

In a letter to the editor in the Reno-Gazette Journal, Sheriff Haley said, "I was pleased to note that, as a result of the passage of health care reform, voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs - proven to reduce child abuse and neglect and cut later crime - will now reach thousands of at-risk families nationwide, including here in Nevada. Rigorous research has shown evidence-based home visiting programs can cut abuse and neglect in half and reduce later delinquency by 60 percent among kids whose parents participate - outcomes that make our communities safer."

The Children's Defense Fund website has a detailed discussion of how these early childhood home visiting programs will work. The Pew Center on the States also has information on the positive aspects of investing in evidence-based home visiting programs. Sheriff Haley is a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an organization with further information about helping kids now to improve society tomorrow.

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