Healthy Start, Healthy Families and child-welfare providers ask delegation for expanded staffing, recurring funds and statutory fix for fatherhood program

Representatives from the Healthy Start Coalition, Helping People Succeed and Communities Connected for Kids urged the Okeechobee County Legislative Delegation on Wednesday to increase recurring funding for core maternal-child health and early-intervention services and to consider a statutory change to expand fatherhood program eligibility.

The requests matter because presenters said current staffing and caseloads limit program quality, that new electronic prenatal risk screening will increase referrals, and that a statutory eligibility restriction prevents many fathers from accessing the Team Dad fatherhood program.

Andrea Medellin, representing the local Healthy Start Coalition, said the coalition is seeking the remainder of a prior year appropriation and additional recurring funds to reduce caseloads across three primary programs: Coordinated Intake and Referral (average reported caseload ~79:1; target ~20:1), Healthy Start home visiting (reported average caseload about 55:1; target 25–30) and a new doula program for non‑Medicaid families. Medellin said the coalition enrolled 27,000 new mothers and infants statewide last fiscal year and trained 484 doulas during the rollout. "The additional workers are needed there because the caseload is averaging around 55 per home visitor and it should be closer to 25 to 30," she said.

Kara Stimpson, chief executive officer of Helping People Succeed, asked the delegation to advocate for a $5,000,000 recurring increase in Healthy Families Florida base funding for fiscal year 2025–26, saying recent state investments improved retention but more is needed to stabilize local community-based providers.

Sherry Sheffer, of Communities Connected for Kids, described the early services engagement program funded last year and told the delegation the program began referrals Oct. 1 and has served 45 children in 17 families to date, with an operational goal of serving 55 children by the end of the fiscal year. Sheffer said estimated savings from avoided foster-care placements range from $200,000 to $500,000 so far and said the agency will request a second year of funding; she also warned the agency continues to operate with deficits and that approximately 50% of prevention funding was cut this fiscal year.

Medellin asked the delegation to consider changing the statute that currently limits Team Dad fatherhood program eligibility to families already enrolled in Healthy Start or another home-visiting program. "The big ask here isn't as much as it is financial, but the statute wording — to lift that restriction of eligibility," she said, adding an estimated 18,000 additional fathers would be eligible if the restriction were lifted. Communities Connected for Kids and other providers also flagged the actuarially sound funding formula report required by House Bill 7089 and asked legislators to scrutinize how that formula would work on the ground.

Delegation staff invited presenters to provide program-level budgets, caseload data and outcomes so the offices can evaluate recurring and one-time funding requests during the session.