Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Human Services Analysis Execution Project

2018 - 2026

This project builds on the earlier OPRE Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Human Services (RED) project. RED built foundational knowledge to inform the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)’s identification and understanding of ethnic and racial differences across the service delivery system. More specifically,

  • in access to and take-up of human services;
  • in the nature and quality of services received;
  • and in the outcomes of services.

To help us better understand how racial and ethnic disparities might affect ACF programs, RED accomplished a number of activities including:

  • a conceptual framework and literature review -
    • the conceptual framework provides a definition of disparities for human services, outlines where along the social service delivery system racial and ethnic disparities might be found, and facilitates the distinction of racial and ethnic differences from disparities.
    • the literature review synthesized the existing research on racial and ethnic disparities in relation to the service delivery system of six programs operated under the auspices of ACF.
  • preliminary data analyses to identify racial and ethnic differences between eligibility and participation within and across four ACF programs.
  • a research design plan for potential future research activities to reliably identify racial and ethnic disparities across the service delivery system of a range of ACF programs and services.
    • the design plan outlines research questions and proposes approaches to addressing those questions, including recommended data sources, analytic strategies and data collection activities.

This current project, the Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Human Services Analysis Execution Project (or RED-X), continues work to implement aspects of RED’s research design plan for two (2) ACF programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF). 

For TANF, the project is exploring the following topics — using a combination of family-level survey data from the U.S. Census, data generated by microsimulation, and TANF program administrative and policy data:

  1. Racial and ethnic differences in the level of underlying financial need for TANF cash assistance,
  2. The stringency of TANF policies that people of different race and ethnicities face based on where they live, and
  3. The use of a multivariate approach to better understand racial and ethnic differences in TANF participation rates among eligible families.

For CCDF, the project is exploring the following topics using a combination of family-level survey data from the U.S. Census, data generated by microsimulation, and CCDF program administrative and policy data:

  1. Racial and ethnic differences in the level of underlying financial need for child care subsidies, 
  2. The stringency of CCDF policies that people of different race and ethnicities face based on where they live, and

  3. The use of a multivariate approach to better understand racial and ethnic differences in CCDF participation rates among CCDF-eligible families.

The project is also conducting a small, qualitative study to explore how one state’s adaptations to COVID-19 may have introduced new and/or ameliorated existing racial/ethnic disparities in TANF.

The goal of this project is to improve ACF program delivery for all racial and ethnic groups. The project will use the results of the analyses to develop briefing papers.

The contractor is the Urban Institute with NORC.

Point(s) of contact: Kim Clum and Jennifer Daniels