Happy Birthday OPRE!

August 9, 2024
| Lauren Supplee and Julia Bleser
OPRE Birthday

In the spirit of human development, we can now consider OPRE a full-fledged adult at the age of 29. As an adult, we are solidifying our identity, leveraging our independence, and expanding our relationships with others. Similar to children growing up, we have seen significant change and development in ourselves over our lifetime. We wanted to share some of our history and where we are going as we embark in our early adulthood.

To understand OPRE’s history, we must first start with ACF’s history. At the turn of the 20th century, child mortality rates, child labor in the workforce, and the number of orphans were key concerns of the federal government. The idea of the Children’s Bureau came out of the first White House Conference on Children in 1909. The bureau was then created in 1912 with the mission to “investigate and report... upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people.” With the passing of Social Security Act in 1935, states established of state departments of health or public welfare in some states and facilitated the efforts of existing agencies in other states. In 1939, the Federal Security Agency  was created to bring together federal programs related to health, education and social welfare. The Federal Security Agency became the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1953  and later the  Department of Health and Human Services in 1980. ACF was created in its present form on April 15, 1991  (PDF), by merging the Office of Human Development Services, the Family Support Administration, and the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program. ACF continues to be the largest human services administrator in the government for some of the US’ most vulnerable children, youth, and families. Within ACF, OPRE’s purpose from the start was, and continues to be, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these child and family programs. 

OPRE as a distinct office within ACF was formed on August 9, 1995  (PDF) with a mandate to provide “…guidance, analysis, technical assistance, and oversight to ACF programs and across programs in the agency on: Strategic planning aimed at measurable results; performance measurement; research and evaluation methodologies; demonstration testing and model development; statistical, policy and program analysis; synthesis and dissemination of research and demonstration findings; and application of emerging technologies to improve the effectiveness of programs and service delivery  (PDF).” The Division of Economic Independence was established with a focus on welfare, employment, and family self-sufficiency. The second division, the Division of Child and Family Development (DCFD), was created with a focus on child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, child abuse and neglect, and adoption and foster care. When the Affordable Care Act brought about new funding for programs such as the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting, Health Professions Opportunity Grants and the Personal Responsibility Education programs, the Division of Family Strengthening (DFS) was established in 2012 and covers topics such as adolescent pregnancy prevention, positive youth development, healthy marriage, responsible fatherhood, family violence, runaway and homeless youth, and home visiting. Given then need for federal leadership and resources dedicated to improving the quality and use of administrative data for learning and improvement, ACF established the Division of Data and Improvement  (DDI) in 2016 to improve the quality, usefulness, and availability of data and addressing issues related to privacy and data security and data sharing. 

Over the last thirty years of OPRE’s history, the White House and Congress have increasingly focused on the importance of evidence building and evidence-based policymaking, including expanding the authority of ACF programs to conduct and support research and evaluation. The focus of OPRE over time has expanded not only in the programs we serve but in the elevation of research, evaluation, and data as a key part of government. Initially, OPRE was at the forefront of embedding randomized trials in the development and implementation of policy initiatives, such as the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Waivers , and why it was critical to have high-quality impact studies to inform policy. As one example, a key project in OPRE, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training program (JOBS ) used random assignment to test whether providing basic education to adult welfare recipients would improve employment and earnings. This was a key early example in OPRE’s history of requiring rigorous evaluations connected to policy relevant topics to test the changes on welfare receipt, employment and earnings. In the George W. Bush Administration support for developing and using rigorous evidence continued with programs such as the Supporting Evidence Based Home Visiting Initiative , a precursor to some of the later investments in evidence-based policy. In that same Administration, Congress placed an emphasis on using research in specific programs. For example, the Head Start Reauthorization Act of 2007 included a requirement to leverage scientifically-based research and measures in the program. In the Obama Administration the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 included several tiered evidence initiatives where programmatic funds were tied to the level of evidence of a particular approach and included requirements around systematic reviews and national impact studies. Congress began to recognize the importance of evidence building with specific set-asides in legislation for this purpose, such as in the Child Care Development Block Grant Act of 2014 . Most recently the Evidence-based Policymaking Act of 2018 and related OMB guidance strengthened our work by recognizing the critical importance of evidence building and data along with the need to build infrastructure to use that evidence to strengthen programs. Through these investments in evidence building and use, OPRE responded with rigorous, relevant work to meet the needs of ACF.

To acknowledge the importance of the evidence building function, in 2012 ACF established an evaluation policy, one of the first in the government, and codified it in the Federal Register  in 2014. ACF’s evaluation policy (PDF) confirms ACF’s commitment to conducting evaluations and using evidence from evaluations to inform policy and practice. In addition, the policy codifies several key principles and protections to ensure evidence building remains independent and rigorous. To meet our applied mission of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of ACF programs, OPRE closely collaborates with ACF program offices to develop shared learning agendas and engage in co-development of budget proposals. OPRE staff work to understand the questions and needs of our program partners to ensure the work we do is relevant and useful to policy and practice. OPRE builds and strengthens ACF staff capacity to understand and use evidence as a tool to better meet their missions. 

As OPRE enters its third decade, we know the office will continue to grow and develop and contribute to not only ACF but the broader government community. We are excited to see the new investment happening in evidence around the government and hope our history can serve as a roadmap to others on this journey. 

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