Critics sound alarm over HHS plans to restructure evaluation office

A coalition of nonprofits, research institutions, child welfare advocates and more note that plans to push research out of the Administration for Children and Families and into the purview of political appointees jeopardize the credibility of that work.

Over 130 research institutions, data organizations, companies, child welfare advocates and others are asking the Department of Health and Human Services to stop its planned restructuring of the research arm at the Administration for Children and Families. 

The changes, which would put much of the work under the purview of political appointees, risk undermining the credibility of the office’s research, the groups say in a Monday letter sent to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

HHS issued an internal memo earlier this month, first reported by the Imprint, saying that it was reorganizing its Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, which evaluates the effectiveness of the programs managed by ACF, like ...