Project Index

Good program evaluations assess program performance, measure impacts on families and communities, and document our success. With this information, programs are better able to direct limited resources to where they are most needed and most effective in...

This is the landing page for the Study of Disability Services Coordinators and Inclusion in Head Start.

Learn about the development of the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse, which was established to systematically review research on programs and services intended to provide enhanced support to children and families and prevent foster care placements. The Clearinghouse rates programs and services, including mental health and substance abuse prevention, treatment services and in-home parent skill-based programs, and kinship navigator services.

Explore the Touchpoints for Addressing Substance Use In Home Visiting page for a conceptual model and review of the literature on how home visiting programs can support families dealing with substance use issues.

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP) was a longitudinal impact evaluation of the Early Head Start program initiated in 1996, at the same time that the Early Head Start program was created. Child and family assessments were conducted when children were 14 months old, 24 months old...

Explore studies of youth served through the Transitional Living Program (TLP) and services related to housing, education, employment, social and emotional well-being, COVID-19, and permanent connections.

Explore the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC)'s goals for addressing gaps in early childhood research with American Indian and Alaska Native families through partnerships with tribal Head Start, Early Head Start, child care, and home visiting programs.

Find out more about the Tribal Evaluation Health Profession Opportunity across our briefs, and snapshots on Tribal grantees implementation of career pathways into health care fields.

Explore OPRE's Tribal Home Visiting Evaluation Institute (TEI) page for resources from data and evaluation capacity building efforts in Tribal Home Visiting.

Explore how the Tribal Research Center for Early Childhood Development and Systems (TRC) promotes excellence in community-based participatory research and evaluation of ACF early childhood initiatives that serve tribal communities.

Explore tools and resources developed for Tribal TANF Child Welfare Coordination Grantees.

The Underreporting of Welfare Utilization in Current Population Survey Data Evidence for Matched California Administrative Data (CPS) study examined the incidence of under- and over-reporting of welfare participation in the Current Population Survey...

The purpose of this project is to better understand how to improve children’s transitions from Head Start programs to elementary schools. Central to this project is a systems approach that recognizes that effective transitions require intentional engagement from both the sending programs (Head Start) and the receiving programs (elementary schools). This approach also recognizes that transition strategies and practices must be implemented at multiple levels — among classroom teachers in Head Start and kindergarten, families and teachers, elementary school principals and Head Start directors, Head Start grantees and school districts, and state and federal agencies.

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 for a study or group of studies to better understand 1) judicial decision-making during the life of a child welfare case as well as the quality of child welfare court proceedings, 2) the factors associated with decision-making and hearing quality, and 3) the influence that decision-making and hearing quality may have on case planning and outcomes such as parent engagement in services and children’s permanency outcomes.

For children in foster care, adoption and guardianship represent two important permanency outcomes. However, a finalized adoption or guardianship does not necessarily indicate that a child will experience long-term stability or have a permanent home. Instability may be formal (where a child re-enters foster care) or informal (where a child lives temporarily with another family member). 

The Understanding Poverty project, which is being conducted by MEF Associates in partnership with MDRC, is examining the organizational culture of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) offices and the perspectives of families and children living in poverty.

In 2021, OPRE contracted with Urban Institute to better understand the types of child care and early education (CCEE) supply-building and sustainability efforts states, territories, and tribes are undertaking as well as to plan for a potential future evaluation of those efforts.   The project will pay particular attention to how the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the child care and early education market (e.g., supply and demand, cost of care) and how supply-building or sustainability efforts may have changed to be responsive to these changes.

TRLECE seeks to strengthen the field’s understanding of the role of the child care and early education (CCEE) licensing system in supporting children, families, and key stakeholders (e.g., child care providers, licensing agencies, and state administrators).

This project documented the types of services or activities funded by states with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and state Maintenance-of-Effort (MOE) program funds categorized in Federal reporting as “Other” and...

The purpose of this project is to implement an exploratory research study to better understand the challenges and context for family self-sufficiency of low-income Alaska Natives and American Indians living in urban areas and their interactions with...

This compendium was created in response to the 2007 Head Start reauthorization requirement that programs use reliable and valid early childhood assessments and developmental screeners that are appropriate for the populations they serve. The compendium...

Explore how home visiting programs can be benefitted by identifying, developing, studying, and disseminating evidence-informed resources and strategies that can be implemented to ensure more equitable access to and participation of families in home visiting and, ultimately, more positive outcomes for children and families.

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...

The Understanding the Demand Side of the TANF Labor Market project developed, conducted, and analyzed a national survey of employers, in order to gain a better understanding of the policies, practices, and opportunities in the entry-level, low-skill...

Since the creation of TANF in 1996, there has been concern about TANF recipients who leave TANF without finding work, as well as low-income individuals who may be eligible for TANF but are neither receiving TANF nor working. Low-income individuals and...

In the fall of 2014, ACF launched a descriptive study to document the similarities and differences between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance and the Refugee Cash Assistance program. ACF’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) administers...

The Understanding the Value of Centralized Services (VOCS) project is a broad inquiry to examine the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of providing multiple social services for families with low incomes at one location.

In 2011, OPRE awarded five University Partnership Research Grants for the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program to support research and evaluation studies focused on questions relevant to HPOG program goals and objectives. Applicants were required to demonstrate a partnership with one or more of the HPOG programs funded in 2010 as an integral part of the research plan development and execution...

Technology has become increasingly prevalent in early care and education settings, yet little is known about the effectiveness, function, and requirements for technologies that are available to early childhood programs. The purpose of this project was to review the knowledge base related to the use of technology to support the practice of early childhood practitioners who work directly with children and families. The review was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago...

The VIQI study is testing how different levels and features of classroom quality relate to children’s developmental outcomes by looking at the relationship of initial child care and early education (CCEE) classroom quality to changes in observed quality and children’s outcomes through a rigorous experimental design.

Vermont Welfare Restructuring Project's time limit triggered a work requirement rather than the termination of cash assistance. The following were key provisions of the program: (1) the scope of mandatory participation in work or work activities...

This brief summarizes the impact findings from three recent federal evaluations of programs serving disadvantaged noncustodial parents: the Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD), the Parents and Children Together Demonstration (PACT), and the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED). It finds positive results on employment and earnings and parenting outcomes, but no impact on the amount of child support paid. It discusses possible explanations for this null effect and suggests that future research will want to further examine this issue. 

The What Works Best for Whom: Effects of Welfare Reform Policies on Subgroups of Current and Former Welfare Recipients project investigated the effects of recent welfare policies on various subgroups of welfare recipients. It added to earlier work on...

This was a two-part project dealing with Work Participation and TANF/WIA Coordination. The Claims Resolution Act of 2010 extended the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program and contains a section on reports required from the states...

“Family-friendly” or “work-life” polices have become increasingly prevalent in the United States, but few longitudinal studies using experimental design have been implemented to test such policies. Moreover, knowledge about work-life policies aimed at low-wage workers is scant. To address this gap, OPRE supported a study by the Work, Family and Health Network (WFHN) of the National Institute for Child Health and Development (NICHD). WFHN implemented a workplace...

The purpose of the Youth Education and Relationship Services (YEARS) Project, awarded to Child Trends, was to better understand the services that federally-funded Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs are providing to youth. The project described the organizations implementing HMRE programs...

The goal of this project is to collect data that will inform educational topics and strategies for an optimal-health sexual risk avoidance (SRA) approach to reducing teen pregnancy and improving youth well-being.