AN ACT CREATING A COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES FROM BIRTH TO AGE FIVE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2008) (a) The Departments of Social Services, Education, Public Health, Children and Families and the Children's Trust Fund shall enter into a master contract to promote improved child outcomes and the integration of services for families and children from birth to five years of age in the areas of maternal and child health, literacy, family support and early care and education. The master contract shall include research-based practices, align categorical funding streams, adopt common population outcomes for program implementation and establish protocols to work collaboratively with local communities and providers. The master contract shall promote collaborative management across departments and agencies and promote work with local communities to implement strategies that focus on families and children in an outcome-based system. The contract shall include monitoring and evaluation of outcomes in a results-based accountability model.

(b) The master contract shall seek to achieve the following outcomes: (1) Decrease the incidences of low birth weight; (2) increase prenatal care; (3) increase breastfeeding; (4) increase well-child visits; (5) increase early detection and prevention screening and assessment; (6) decrease the incidences of child abuse; (7) decrease the incidences of teen pregnancy; (8) increase educational attainment of parents; (9) increase quality infant, toddler and child care capacity; and (10) increase reporting mechanisms and the sharing of information across agencies.

(c) The following services shall be coordinated into a single system under the master contract to achieve the outcomes outlined in subsection (b) of this section: (1) System prenatal care; (2) home visitation services; (3) nutrition; (4) lactation counseling; (5) early screening and intervention services; (6) education and literacy services; (7) family safety net services to meet basic needs; and (8) other services deemed necessary to promote the health and well-being of the mother, father and child.

(d) The master contract shall provide for prevention strategies based on the following: (1) Serving families within the context of their families and communities; (2) utilizing strength-based approaches; (3) ensuring that services and systems are culturally competent; (4) emphasizing targeted research-based interventions; (5) organizing services into a coherent system; (6) establishing service delivery pathways that are comprehensive and easy to navigate; and (7) focusing on performance measures to ensure that services are accountable, effective and accessible to the consumer.

(e) The Early Childhood Education Cabinet shall align its protocols and agreements with the master contract as outlined in this section.

(f) The Department of Social Services and the Commission on Children shall jointly report, in accordance with section 11-4a of the general statutes, on the progress made toward achieving the master contract's objectives to the joint standing committees of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to appropriations, and the budgets of state agencies, human services and public health on or before February 1, 2009, and annually thereafter.

Statement of Purpose:

To create a master contract between the Departments of Social Services, Education, Public Health, Children and Families and the Children's Trust Fund to improve child outcomes by integrating services for children and families from birth to age five.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]