What We Do

An Introduction to OPRE by Director Naomi Goldstein

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) studies Administration for Children and Families (ACF) programs and the populations they serve through rigorous research and evaluation projects. These include evaluations of existing programs, evaluations of innovative approaches to helping low-income children and families, research syntheses, and descriptive and exploratory studies.

We also work to improve the analysis of data and coordinate performance management for ACF.

We have four divisions:

• The Division of Economic Independence focuses on welfare, employment, and family self-sufficiency.
• The Division of Child and Family Development focuses on child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, and child abuse and neglect.
• The Division of Family Strengthening focuses on teen pregnancy prevention, youth development, healthy marriage, responsible fatherhood, family violence, runaway and homeless youth, and home visiting.
• The Division of Data and Improvement focuses on increasing the quality, usefulness, sharing, and analysis of data to improve ACF programs and program participants’ outcomes.

A number of audiences use our research to inform their work including:

• ACF program offices
• Federal, state and local policymakers
• Researchers
• Training and technical assistance providers
• Practitioners, such as program directors and state and county administrators