Colorado Title 26.5. Early Childhood Programs and Services § 26.5-3-502. Legislative declaration

(1) The general assembly finds that in order to adequately care for their newborns and young children, new mothers may often benefit from receiving professional assistance and information. Without such assistance and information, a young mother may develop habits or practices that are detrimental to her health and well-being and the health and well-being of her child. The general assembly further finds that inadequate prenatal care and inadequate care in infancy and early childhood often inhibit a child's ability to learn and develop throughout the child's childhood and may have lasting, adverse effects on the child's ability to function as an adult. The general assembly recognizes that implementation of a nurse home visitor program that provides educational, health, and other resources for new young mothers during pregnancy and the first years of their infants' lives has been proven to significantly reduce the amount of drug, including nicotine, and alcohol use and abuse by mothers, the occurrence of criminal activity committed by mothers and their children under fifteen years of age, and the number of reported incidents of child abuse and neglect. Such a program has also been proven to reduce the number of subsequent births, increase the length of time between subsequent births, and reduce the mother's need for other forms of public assistance. It is the intent of the general assembly that such a program be established for the state of Colorado, beginning with a limited number of participants and expanding by the year 2010 to be available to all low-income, first-time mothers in the state who consent to receiving services.

(2) The general assembly further finds that, to implement such a program efficiently and effectively and to promote the successful implementation of partnerships between state public entities and the private sector, responsibility for the program should be divided between the department, which is responsible for financial administration of the program, and a health sciences facility at the university of Colorado, which is responsible for programmatic and clinical support, evaluation, and monitoring for the program, and such other responsibilities as described in this part 5. It is the intent of the general assembly that the department and the health sciences facility work collaboratively to share information in order to promote efficient and effective program implementation; however, neither entity is responsible for the other entity's statutorily prescribed duties.