Prevention Services Evaluation Partnerships: Supporting Adoptive Families | HHS 2025 ACF OPRE FA 0101

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2025 ACF OPRE FA 0101

The Prevention Services Evaluation Partnerships: Supporting Adoptive Families grant is a discretionary cooperative agreement from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE). Its purpose is to fund a rigorous, summative evaluation of programs that support adoptive families who may be at risk of adoption disruption or dissolution, especially when that instability could lead to a child entering (or re-entering) foster care. The core emphasis is on generating strong, credible evidence about what works to stabilize adoptive placements and improve family and child outcomes.

The opportunity is designed around formal partnerships. Applicants are expected to bring together researchers, Title IV-E agencies (the public child welfare agencies connected to federal Title IV-E prevention and foster care funding), and community-based entities with real experience serving adopted children, foster children, or children in kinship care. The idea is that the evaluation should not sit purely in academia or purely in practice; it needs a research team that can execute a high-quality study, a public agency that can support implementation and data access, and service providers or community partners who understand the population and can deliver the intervention in real-world conditions.

The evaluation must focus on one of the prevention service areas aligned with the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse: mental health services, substance abuse prevention and treatment services, in-home parent skill-based programs, or kinship navigator programs or services. While the title highlights adoptive families, the program areas signal that ACF is looking for interventions that address common drivers of family instability, such as child or parent mental health needs, substance use concerns, parenting stress and skills, and navigation of complex service systems. The funded project is expected to test whether the selected program meaningfully reduces risk factors tied to adoption instability and improves outcomes relevant to child safety, permanency, and well-being.

A major requirement is methodological strength. The awardee must conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) or a closely comparable quasi-experimental study that meets the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse Design and Execution Standards for Moderate or High Support of Causal Evidence. In practice, this means the evaluation needs to be structured so that any observed differences in outcomes can credibly be attributed to the program itself, not to pre-existing differences between families who did and did not receive services. Because the Clearinghouse standards are the benchmark, the project must be planned with careful attention to study design, comparison conditions, sample selection, outcome measurement, implementation fidelity, and analytic methods.

The program or service to be evaluated must already be ready for this level of research. ACF indicates that eligible interventions should be prepared for rigorous evaluation, such as having completed earlier studies or preliminary evaluations. The grant is not meant for brand-new, untested concepts that still need basic development; it is meant for programs that are sufficiently mature to be implemented consistently and evaluated fairly. Applicants may propose to collect new data, use existing administrative or program data, or blend both, as long as the approach supports a high-quality causal evaluation.

ACF is particularly interested in building the evidence base for interventions that could be reviewed by the Clearinghouse but are not yet rated, or that have been reviewed and received a rating of "does not currently meet criteria." In other words, the agency is trying to move the field forward by supporting evaluations that could help interventions earn a stronger evidence rating, become usable by Title IV-E agencies seeking approved prevention services, or clarify why certain models are not producing expected results and what might need to change.

This is a cooperative agreement, which typically means ACF will be substantially involved during the project rather than acting only as a funder. Consistent with that, the recipient must work closely with federal staff and with the current PSEP cohort throughout the evaluation. The planned project period is four years, structured as one budget period, which implies a single overarching budget covering the full period rather than multiple annual budget renewals. Only one award is expected, and the award ceiling is $1,800,000, so competition is likely to be tight and the selected project will probably serve as a flagship evaluation within this initiative. The application deadline listed is September 8, 2025.

Eligibility is broad across public and private sectors, including state, county, and local governments; tribal governments and certain tribal organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. Individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are not eligible and will be disqualified. Faith-based and community organizations may apply on the same basis as other eligible entities, and ACF states it will not discriminate based on religious character or affiliation, consistent with applicable federal regulations and protections.

Overall, this opportunity is aimed at producing clearinghouse-relevant, policy-actionable evidence about prevention-oriented services that can keep adoptive families stable and reduce the likelihood that children end up in foster care due to adoption breakdown. The strongest applicants will typically be those that can show a well-established intervention model, solid implementation capacity through agency and community partners, a feasible plan to recruit and retain a sufficient study sample, access to high-quality outcome data, and an evaluation design that clearly meets the Clearinghouse standards for moderate or high causal evidence.

• The Administration for Children and Families - OPRE in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Prevention Services Evaluation Partnerships: Supporting Adoptive Families" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.652.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-07-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-09-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,800,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for HHS 2025 ACF OPRE FA 0101

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: