Gov. Sherrill Funds Home Nurse Visits for Newborns in NJ

Gov. Mikie Sherrill wants nurses knocking on doors across every county in New Jersey within a year, and she’s putting $12.8 million behind it.

Sherrill’s first budget proposal, the $60.7 billion spending plan she unveiled last week, includes funding to expand Family Connects NJ to all 21 counties by January 2027. The program sends specially trained registered nurses into homes within two weeks of a birth or adoption, offering free checkups for newborns and new mothers regardless of income or insurance status. It also serves families who experience stillbirth or infant death.

“I know parenting is hard. Parenting right now is even harder. That’s why this budget invests in our children from the moment they’re born,” Sherrill told lawmakers when she presented the proposal.

The funding now moves to the Legislature, which has until July 1 to draft and adopt a budget for the next fiscal year. If lawmakers approve the allocation, the state Department of Children and Families will add services in the four remaining counties not yet covered: Hunterdon, Morris, Union, and Warren.

Family Connects NJ launched in 2024 in four counties and has grown steadily since. Former Gov. Phil Murphy, who left office in January, committed at least $50 million across multiple budget years to get the program off the ground and expanding. Sherrill’s proposal would finish that job, achieving statewide coverage a goal Murphy’s administration set before he left.

The numbers from the program so far make a strong case for the investment. State officials say trained nurses have visited more than 10,000 families statewide. Nurses weigh and examine newborns, assess the mother’s physical and mental health, and connect families to additional resources when needed.

The data from 2025 alone tells a striking story. More than half of all families visited were linked to services ranging from rent assistance and food pantries to mental health support and lactation help. One in six required emergency care for the mother, the baby, or both. These are families who, without that nurse visit, might not have known where to turn or how serious their situation was.

Christine Norbut Beyer, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, described the program’s reach plainly. “Navigating life with a newborn can raise all kinds of questions, but through Family Connects NJ, every family with a newborn, regardless of income eligibility or insurance coverage, can get a free visit from a specially trained, registered nurse, all from the comfort of their own home,” she told reporters by email.

New Jersey is only the second state in the country, after Oregon, pursuing a statewide version of this model. The Family Connects approach is used in more than 60 communities nationwide, but building it out to cover an entire state is a different undertaking. New Jersey’s push is being watched.

The Burke Foundation, a New Jersey-based philanthropy focused on healthy families, has supported the work alongside state funding and recently produced a video promoting the program.

The expansion matters for reasons beyond convenience. New Jersey mothers die at higher rates during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period than the national average. Black mothers in the state face even sharper disparities. A nurse visit that catches an infection, a dangerous blood pressure reading, or a mother spiraling into postpartum depression is not a luxury. For some families, it is the difference between a crisis caught early and one that ends in tragedy.

Universal programs like this one also sidestep the bureaucratic gatekeeping that keeps too many families from accessing help. No means test. No insurance hurdle. A nurse shows up. That’s the model.

Whether Trenton delivers the funding is the next question. Sherrill’s budget faces months of negotiation before lawmakers adopt a final spending plan. Bergen, Hudson, Essex, the shore counties, the farmland stretches of South Jersey, all of them already benefit from some version of this program. Hunterdon, Morris, Union, and Warren are waiting.

The finish line is visible. The governor wants to cross it.