This morning, Scioto Analysis published a cost-benefit analysis about the impacts of Help Me Grow, a home visiting program in Ohio. Using analysis from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, we estimate that Help Me Grow creates a net benefit of $112 million, with about $3.30 in benefits created for every $1.00 in costs.
Ohio is falling behind in kindergarten readiness scores while childcare subsidies remain low compared to other states. One solution to this problem is home visiting, which matches new and expecting mothers with a nurse, social worker, early childhood specialist, or paraprofessional who conducts home visits and provides assistance to families. Home visiting can help to reduce parental stress, increase access to childcare, and improve kindergarten readiness.
The Help Me Grow home visiting program in Ohio supports 13,000 families per year. The main contributing factors are $117 million in benefits from increased labor market earnings due to reduced child abuse and neglect, $17.7 million in benefits from less social spending due to reduced child abuse and neglect, and $12.1 million in benefits from less smoking later in life. Home visiting also creates benefits to employment, crime, and out-of-home placement.
We conducted 10,000 simulations of the current Help Me Grow home visiting program in Ohio with different variables and costs to test our model. We found that home visiting creates a positive net value for Ohio in 81% of trials, with the middle 90% of outcomes between -$97 million and $320 million in net social benefits.
For the 2026-2027 biennium, Ohio plans to expand the Help Me Grow home visiting by 23%. We estimate that this expanded program will produce a net benefit of $138 million, $26 million more benefits than the status quo. As Ohio expands Help Me Grow more, the number of families served increases, which increases the total benefit to Ohio.