The Cost of Implementing a Home Visiting Program Designed to Prevent Repeat Pregnancies Among Adolescent Mothers

Cost is often a primary concern when policymakers and practitioners consider a new program. This brief provides information on the cost of implementing an enhanced home visiting program for adolescent mothers. The information comes from an evaluation of the Steps to Success home visiting program in San Angelo, Texas, which Mathematica conducted for the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For the evaluation, trained staff from Healthy Families San Angelo (HFSA) provided Steps to Success to pregnant or recently postpartum mothers ages 14 to 20. HFSA developed Steps to Success by enhancing a traditional home visiting program offered by the organization. On average, each mother received a total of 33 home visits over two years. Mathematica partnered with HFSA staff to collect information on the program’s cost, with the goal of understanding the resources required to provide the program and how its cost compares to other home visiting programs.