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Office of Human Services Policy (HSP)

The Office of Human Services Policy (HSP) strives to improve the well-being of children, youth, and families and break down silos across government. It does so by providing timely, actionable, cross-cutting policy analysis and research, and by leading cross-government coordination to address urgent human services challenges. The office works closely with federal, state, local, and private sector partners on issues including economic mobility and employment, child poverty and well-being, child welfare, family strengthening and fatherhood, early childhood education, youth development, community initiatives, child support, recidivism, and homelessness.

HSP advises the ASPE and other HHS leadership on human services policy matters. It leads and actively participates in interagency initiatives to align federal programming; conducts policy analysis and other research on human services and related issues; shares findings with and provides technical assistance to a diverse range of stakeholders; and coordinates development of HHS’s human services legislative proposals. HSP serves as a liaison with other agencies on broad economic matters and is the Department’s lead on poverty measurement.

The Office of Human Services Policy has three divisions:

  • The Division of Children and Youth Policy focuses on policies related to the well-being of children and youth, including early childhood education and child welfare, and leads the Children’s Interagency Coordinating Council and the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs.
  • The Division of Family and Community Policy covers policies to strengthen low-income families and communities and address barriers to economic mobility. The division leads the Interagency Council on Economic Mobility.
  • The Division of Data and Technical Analysis provides data analytic capacity for policy development through data collection activities, secondary data analysis, modeling, and cost analyses. The Division also issues annual updates to the poverty guidelines and reports to Congress on indicators of welfare dependence.

Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy: Jennifer Burnszynski

Reports

Displaying 21 - 30 of 965. 10 per page. Page 3.

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ASPE Issue Brief

Building Successful Data Linking Teams for Child Welfare and Medicaid Agencies: Lessons Learned from the Child Welfare and Health Infrastructure for Linking and Data Analysis of Resources, Effectiveness, and Needs (CHILDREN) Initiative

Linking data across public systems is beneficial for a multitude of reasons including care coordination, improving research on populations engaged with multiple public services, and improving program integrity.
ASPE Issue Brief

Integrating Services to Strengthen Children, Youth, and Families and Prevent Involvement in the Child Welfare System

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been working with researchers, human services agency leaders, and persons with lived experience to visualize, describe, and document models of primary prevention within human services.
Fact Sheet

Exploration of Child Welfare Systems’ Experiences with Custody Relinquishment

This one-pager describes the research questions and objectives of a project exploring the use of custody relinquishment, or when children enter foster care primarily to obtain behavioral health or disability services.
Fact Sheet

Improving Services for Children and Families through Linked Child Welfare and Medicaid Data

This two-pager describes several child welfare and Medicaid data linking projects and lessons learned from those projects. For example, the brief highlights key lessons such as the value in providing states with support in navigating data governance and in strengthening and harmonizing data infrastructure on child welfare service.
Research Brief

Behavioral Health Treatment by Service Type and Race and Ethnicity for Children and Youth Involved with the Child Welfare System

Children and youth involved with the child welfare system frequently have behavioral health conditions and are high users of behavioral health services compared to children and youth in other Medicaid eligibility categories.
Report to Congress, Visualization

Welfare Indicators and Risk Factors: 23rd Report to Congress

The Welfare Indicators Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-432) requires the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare an annual report to Congress on indicators and predictors of “welfare dependence.” That Act requires the report to include three programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program (which replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
Report

The Fiscal Impact of Refugees and Asylees at the Federal, State, and Local Levels from 2005-2019

Between 1990 and 2022, the United States welcomed over 2.1 million refugees and accepted over 800,000 asylees. While the purpose of granting visas to refugees and asylees is humanitarian, they do impact the United States economically. This analysis estimates the fiscal impact of refugees and asylees on federal, state, and local governments from 2005 to 2019.
ASPE Data Point

Estimates of Child Care Eligibility & Receipt for Fiscal Year 2020

Key Points
Report to Congress

Children’s Interagency Coordinating Council FY 2023 Report to Congress

As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Congress provided HHS with funding for the Children’s Interagency Coordinating Council (CICC). The CICC is charged with fostering greater coordination and transparency on child policy across federal agencies and examining a broad array of cross-cutting issues affecting child poverty and child well-being.
Research Brief

Child Care Workers’ Experience of Economic Hardship During the COVID-19 Pandemic, from 2021 to 2022

This brief shares findings from an analysis using U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey data to examine child care workers’ experience of economic hardship from 2021 to 2022 along different measures of economic hardship, across time, by race and ethnicity, and whether child care workers lived with young children. We find: