Plans revealed to end research on Head Start, child welfare programs at Morehouse School of Medicine and others

Morehouse School of Medicine President and CEO Valerie Montgomery Rice spoke at the 50th anniversary event for the school at the Georgia State Capitol on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)

The Trump administration could gut research on the effectiveness of child welfare programs, with plans to terminate dozens of university grants studying improvements to Head Start and child care policy, according to a spreadsheet mistakenly made public this week.

The document listed more than 150 research projects under consideration for termination by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It covered grants funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, which says it “builds evidence to improve lives” by helping policymakers evaluate programs that help low-income children and families.

“These grants are aimed at learning how to make programs more effective at pursuing goals like healthy child development, reducing abuse and neglect and promoting economic self-sufficiency,” said Naomi Goldstein, who led the office for nearly two decades before she retired in 2022. “It’s hard to see why they would want to cancel these efforts.”