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Regular Session, 2011
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 99
BY REPRESENTATIVE KATZ
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request BrightStart, Louisiana's Early Childhood Advisory Council, to study the
merits of, and possible plans for, expansion of the evidence-based Positive Parenting
Program (Triple P) and to report to the House Committee on Health and Welfare
prior to January 31, 2012.
WHEREAS, parenting education can promote parents' ability to enhance their
children's development, thereby helping parents to prepare their children for success in
school and in life; and
WHEREAS, in the 2010 Kids Count Data Book, Louisiana ranked forty-ninth for
overall child health and well-being, continuing a pattern of twenty years with a ranking of
forty-ninth or fiftieth; and
WHEREAS, since state Fiscal Year 2002, the number of children in Louisiana under
the age of six entering foster care has increased by seventy percent, and it is estimated that
Louisiana spends in excess of six hundred million dollars annually on these young children
through law enforcement, child welfare, physical and mental health care, property damage,
and work loss, not to mention the pain and suffering to the victim and the family; and
WHEREAS, preventing child abuse and neglect before it happens is the best and
most cost-effective course of action; and
WHEREAS, to be a "parent educator" in Louisiana there is no licensing,
accreditation, or minimal training requirements of any kind and, in a survey done by the
Louisiana Parenting Education Network, forty-one percent of parenting programs reported
no specific training requirements for their parent educators prior to teaching, and forty-five
percent reported no specific annual training for their educators; and
WHEREAS, the Positive Parenting Program is a system of parenting education with
accredited educators, offering five intervention levels of increasing intensity designed to
enhance parenting skills; and ENROLLEDHR NO. 99
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WHEREAS, this parenting education program is currently used in twenty countries
across North America, Europe, and Asia, and in Australia; and
WHEREAS, the United States Triple P System Trial, a recently published study
funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found between a twenty-five to
thirty-five percent reduction in county-wide rates of substantiated child abuse cases, child
out-of-home (foster care) placements, and reductions in hospitalizations and emergency
room visits for child injuries in nine study counties in South Carolina where the Triple P
parenting interventions were implemented; and
WHEREAS, the evidence base for Triple P also includes forty-three studies
addressing efficacy, effectiveness, and dissemination, as well as twenty-two service-based
field evaluations; and
WHEREAS, in Louisiana there is a cross-agency, early childhood system building
effort, known as BrightStart, that has been designated by Governor Jindal as Louisiana's
Early Childhood Advisory Council and includes members from each of the state departments
that serve children, a member of the Louisiana Senate and a member of the Louisiana House
of Representatives, as well as a number of statewide child-serving nongovernmental
organizations; and
WHEREAS, R.S. 46:2403 creates the Louisiana Children's Trust Fund and mandates
that it shall be used solely for programs designed to prevent the abuse and neglect of
children; and
WHEREAS, BrightStart convened a meeting of the Louisiana Children's Trust Fund,
various state agencies, and private funders to meet with representatives from Triple P to seek
collaboration and support to launch a pilot program in Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Children's Trust Fund, these state agencies, and private
funders have recognized the great need for more evidence-based, effective parenting
programs in Louisiana and have collaborated to initiate a pilot program for Triple P; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Children's Trust Fund has made a significant investment
in the Triple P pilot program and is committed to expanding evidence-based programs in
Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, sixty practitioners from twelve parishes have been trained in Triple P
and fifty-eight have been accredited, representing many different child-serving entities, ENROLLEDHR NO. 99
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including Head Start, Early Head Start, the office of behavioral health in the Department of
Health and Hospitals, nonprofit and faith-based counseling agencies, and pediatric, nursing,
and education professionals.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby urge and request that BrightStart study the merits of,
and possible plans for, expansion of the evidence-based Triple P system and report to the
House Committee on Health and Welfare prior to January 31, 2012.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the report include but not be limited to:
(1) An examination of how other states are implementing the Triple P system.
(2) Recommendations of which levels of the Triple P system are most appropriate
to implement in Louisiana.
(3) Recommendations of the best recruitment and selection process for providers of
Triple P to ensure its effectiveness in Louisiana.
(4) Recommendations for the infrastructure needed, including the training,
consultation, and technical assistance, to support a Triple P system in Louisiana.
(5) Recommendations for outcomes that can be achieved and the data collection
needed to measure the outcomes of Triple P in Louisiana.
(6) An examination of the financial resources needed for expansion.
(7) Recommendations of potential funding sources available for expansion.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
executive director of the Children's Cabinet within the office of the governor, and the
secretaries of the departments that provide parenting education services, including the
secretaries of the Department of Education, the Department of Children and Family Services,
the Department of Health and Hospitals, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections,
and the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATI VES