State-Led Evaluations of Family Engagement: The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program

Family engagement is an essential but challenging ingredient for achieving positive outcomes in home visiting. Awardees of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program are encouraged to conduct rigorous evaluations in multiple areas, including family engagement, to help build the research base.

This brief identifies the types of questions awardees have about family engagement and provides examples of state-led evaluations. Family engagement in this context is defined as the commitment of caregivers and pregnant women to—

• Enroll in home visiting services
• Engage during home visits
• Complete the intended number of home visits across the intended length of program enrollment