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The child welfare research portfolio includes research on children who are maltreated or who are at risk for child maltreatment; children and families who come to the attention of child protective services; and children and families who are receiving child welfare services either in their families of origin or in substitute care settings. OPRE partners with the Children’s Bureau to conduct research covering a broad array of topics, including identification of antecedents and consequences of child maltreatment, strategies for prevention of maltreatment, and service needs and service outcomes for children who come to the attention of child welfare.
The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), in collaboration with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has initiated this project to explore...
This project supports the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in its work with the Children’s Bureau to advance the evidence around collaborative approaches to preventing child abuse and neglect...
Phase I (2013-2017)
Phase I of this project provided evaluation-related technical assistance to organizations awarded planning grants for the development of interventions for youth with child welfare involvement who are most likely to experience homelessness...
OPRE’s child and family development work includes research and evaluation projects primarily concerned with child care and child welfare. This portfolio additionally examines the culturally diverse experiences of children and families served by ACF programs.
Research focuses on five major areas, including: Child Care, Head Start and Early Head Start, Child Welfare, Cultural Diversity, Cross-Cutting Early Childhood Research...
The Child Maltreatment Incidence Data Linkages (CMI Data Linkages) project will support ACF in identifying and enhancing existing administrative data linkage practices related to examining the incidence and risk of child maltreatment. Through the design and execution of a multi-site feasibility study, the CMI Data Linkages project will explore how enhancing and scaling innovative data linkage practices can improve our understanding of child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors.
ACF supports the development and operation of fully integrated systems to support person-centric service delivery. Integration implies alignment of legal, policy, program, and technology factors that impact our ability to share information. If we are successful as a community, interoperability will drive progress in...
This project will support the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in identifying federal, state, and/or local definitions and policies related to the surveillance of child maltreatment and related risk...
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has awarded a contract to MEF Associates and its subcontractor, Child Trends, to conduct a study to better understand the range of child welfare services and benefits provided through the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) Program. The URM Program serves refugees and...
In September 2015, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in collaboration with the Children’s Bureau (CB) awarded a contract to Mathematica Policy Research to carry out the Design Options for Understanding Child Maltreatment Incidence. The purpose of this 18-month project is to develop design options for a potential future study or group of studies that would leverage existing administrative data, innovative methods, and advanced statistical techniques to...
This project will help the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Children’s Bureau to identify and better assist children and youth served by its programs who are victims of, or are at risk of, domestic human trafficking. The project will summarize current understanding of human trafficking and resources addressing human trafficking in the child welfare population
Evidence suggests that fathers play an important role in children's development and that they can serve as a key source of emotional and financial support. In many social services, however, fathers are...
ACF’s Hispanic Research Work Group brings together experts in a wide range of content areas relevant to ACF’s mission to assist ACF/OPRE in identifying research priorities concerning low-income, Hispanic families.
This contract will produce a series of research briefs on issues related to the well-being and economic self-sufficiency of families and children experiencing homelessness. The briefs will be based on data collected as part of the U.S. Department of...
Though significant evaluative work has been carried out to improve our understanding of how human services programs meet their goals of improving family economic self-sufficiency, financial security, and overall wellbeing, there are gaps in knowledge of how programs can best serve rural communities. Rural contexts present unique opportunities and challenges for administering human services programs, and the Administration for Children & Families (ACF) seeks to better understand these contexts through several programs
This project will conduct research to answer questions identified by the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation and Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) that will inform the development of anti-trafficking strategies, policies, and programs to prevent and respond to human trafficking...
OPRE plays a central role in advancing understanding and disseminating knowledge about research and evaluation methods and tools that are, or could be, used to enhance knowledge about program and policy effectiveness. The purpose of the Methods Inquiries project is to organize...
The Children’s Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families has contracted with the Urban Institute and its partners—the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and the National Opinion Research Center...
The National Domestic Violence Hotline (“The Hotline”) and loveisrespect (LIR; the helpline targeted towards young people) provide a confidential 24-hour national, toll-free telephone hotline as well as digital services including chats, texts and website resources to provide information and assistance to victims of family violence, domestic violence or dating violence...
In collaboration with the Children’s Bureau, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation is conducting the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4). The National Incidence Studies have been conducted approximately...
The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) is a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of children and families who have been the subjects of investigation by Child Protective Services. There have been two cohorts of children enrolled in the survey, which makes available data drawn from first-hand reports from children, parents, and other caregivers, as well as reports from caseworkers, teachers, and data from administrative records.
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee program; formerly the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program) was created following the passage of the Foster Care Independence Act (FCIA) of 1999 (Public Law 106-169). The program provides assistance to help youth currently and formerly in foster care achieve self-sufficiency by providing grants to States and eligible Tribes that submit an approvable plan.
The eighteen projects funded under the grant program for Secondary Analyses of Data on Child Care and Early Education are conducting analyses of existing data sets to answer critical research questions that will inform both policymakers and future research. Topics include associations between subsidy receipt and long-term child achievement, access to early care and education for low-income families, and links between subsidy rates and child care quality...
In 2013, OPRE commissioned four interrelated reports on self-regulation and toxic stress from a team at the Center for Child and Social Policy at Duke University. That team and other experts have since created multiple practice-oriented resources grounded in the initial reports. Together, these reports and resources comprise the ‘Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress Series.’
This project is a partnership between the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE). It is funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Trust Fund. A contract to support this work will be awarded in September 2019.
HHS will work with two to four states to...
OPRE has awarded a five-year contract to the Urban Institute to support the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in increasing the number of evidence-supported interventions for the child welfare population by conducting rigorous evaluations and supporting the field in moving toward rigorous evaluations...
The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse was established by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to systematically review research on programs and services intended to provide enhanced support to children and families and prevent foster care placements. The Clearinghouse, developed in accordance with the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018, will rate programs and services as promising, supported, and well-supported practices. These practices will include mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services and in-home parent skill-based programs, as well as kinship navigator services.
The goal of the Touchpoints for Addressing Substance Use Issues in Home Visiting project is to generate knowledge about how home visiting programs, including those funded through HRSA’s and ACF's Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, engage and support families around prevention, treatment, and recovery from substance use issues. The project will identify evidence-informed practices for working with families, supporting frontline staff, and building collaborations with referral sources. The project will also identify gaps in knowledge on preventing or addressing substance use issues within the context of home visiting.
The 2003 Reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act called for a study of long-term outcomes for youth who are served through the Transitional Living Program (TLP). In response, OPRE and ACF’s Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) are sponsoring a study that will capture data from youth at program entry and up to 12 months...
The purpose of this project is to provide guidance and support to Tribal TANF Child Welfare Coordination Grantees that promotes excellence in performance measurement, continuous quality improvement, and grantee-led collaborations between child welfare and TANF agencies in their tribal communities. The project is intended to (1) provide guidance to grantees in revising project logic models to align project activities with intended outcomes; (2) provide support for grantees’ identification and collection of performance measures to track project activities and outcomes; (3) provide support to grantees in using data for quality assurance and continuous quality improvement; (4) provide programmatic guidance on ways to strengthen Tribal TANF and Child Welfare coordination in order to strengthen outcomes specified by grantees in their applications; and (5) document these activities and lessons learned. This project will provide universal guidance and peer learning opportunities, as well as grantee specific guidance on a variety of topics which may include identification of measurable goals and objectives, data systems and data privacy, data analysis and interpretation, continuous quality improvement, and dissemination of program successes.
Project Overview
This project will support the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) and the Children’s Bureau (CB) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in developing design options...
The purpose of the Understanding Postadoption and Guardianship Instability for Children and Youth Who Exit Foster Care project is to examine rates of instability, factors associated with instability, and the supports and resources that promote post-permanency stability...
Young adults and children who are involved in the child welfare (CW) system or who are considered to be runaway and homeless youth (RHY) are particularly vulnerable to domestic human trafficking, though the full extent of the problem is not yet known. Labor trafficking of minors in the United States is particularly understudied.
Child Welfare Systems' Responses to Children of Color was funded to review research examining the child welfare system's response to children of color, to identify programs and practices that address perceived racial or cultural disparities...
The Office of Community Services which had administrative responsibility for the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF)Program partnered with OPRE to conduct evaluations of two of the grant programs supported through the CCF: the Demonstration Program and...
Hurricane Katrina was perhaps the largest single natural disaster in America’s history. Millions of people were on the hurricane’s path. About half a million people in New Orleans were displaced by floods caused by Hurricane Katrina...
The purpose of the Implementation of Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) by American Indian Tribes study was to examine the ways in which Indian Tribes use funds received under title IV-B, subpart 2 to provide services that strengthen...
Improving Implementation Research Methods for Behavioral and Social Science, 2010 ACF, along with other federal partners (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Centers for Disease Control's Division of Violence Prevention...
Subgroup analysis, broadly, aims to measure change within and between groups...
The purpose of the National Evaluation of Family Support Programs was to understand the effects of family support on families and children. A central task of the evaluation was to synthesize and analyze the body of research on family support, to answer...
This contract aims to develop an evidence-informed research dissemination strategy for OPRE to improve the communication and usefulness of research and evaluation findings to targeted audiences...
The Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII) is a multi-site federal demonstration project designed to improve permanency outcomes among children in foster care who have the most serious barriers to permanency. This initiative supports six grantees, each with a unique intervention designed to help a specific subgroup of children leave foster care in fewer than three years.
OPRE, supported by a contract with Mathematica and the Williams Institute, in coordination with the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), conducted extensive work to identify knowledge gaps and propose research recommendations related to the human service needs of low-income and at-risk lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations...
The National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) provides longitudinal data from multiple informants on the functioning, well-being, and services provided to a national probability sample of children and families who come into contact...
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is undertaking a descriptive study to document the approaches and strategies utilized by tribal organizations awarded cooperative agreements under the Coordination of Tribal TANF and Child Welfare...
Effect sizes are increasingly applied to describe the magnitude of findings about program effectiveness across a range of policy contexts. Though more researchers are recognizing the importance of including effect sizes in manuscripts, at times these...
This grant to Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago is jointly administered by OPRE and ASPE. Its purpose is to document differences in state policies that affect child-only TANF cases, describe characteristics and dynamics of such cases, and...