Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

14. Department of Health and Human Services · Notable

Abolish approved sex education curriculum lists

Partially done

477 14. Department of Health and Human Services

“Any lists with “approved curriculum” or so-called evidence-based lists should be abolished; HHS should not create a monopoly of curriculum, adding to the profit of certain publishers.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    **The approved-program list is gone, and OPA says so in its own published words.** In the Questions and Answers for the FY2026 Tier 1 replication competition (NOFO AH-TP1-26-001), a member of the public asks — Q37 — "It does not seem there is a list of approved programs that applicants may choose from", and OPA answers: "Applicants may propose **any** program for replication, provided it meets the eligibility criteria outlined in Appendix A – Criteria for Eligible TPP Effective Programs." Q38 asks OPA outright for a list of acceptable models and the answer restates the criteria and supplies none. Q55: "**OPA does not pre-review programs prior to award.** Applicants are responsible for documenting in their application how the supporting study meets the criteria outlined in Appendix A." What replaced the list is a criteria test, not an absence of standards — Appendix A of the NOFO, read directly, sets research-design, 15-year timeliness, outcome-domain and study-quality requirements — so the 75-percent proven-effective reservation Public Law 119-75 still requires is satisfied case by case rather than by a curated list. **`partial` and not `done`, for a stated reason.** The two list pages (`/research-evaluation/teen-pregnancy-prevention-program-evaluations/tpp-evidence-review` and `/grant-programs/teen-pregnancy-prevention-program/tpp-successful-strategies`) answer HTTP 403 with no rescission notice and no date, and they have now also dropped out of `opa.hhs.gov/sitemap.xml` (212 URLs, enumerated 2026-09-03) — so what is *evidenced* is that no list governs the FY2026 competition, not that a list was formally abolished; and OPA still gatekeeps which programs may be implemented, now by criteria plus post-award review ("recipients may not implement any program until it has been reviewed and approved by OPA as an effective program"). A reviewer could read "the list is gone and criteria replaced it" as the ask delivered and level `done`; `partial` is recorded because the Quote's object is the list and the instrument that removed it has not been produced. **Dating:** 2026-07-20 is the FAQ page's stated Last Update; the NOFO itself was produced 2026-06-23 (its PDF creation date) with applications due 2026-07-23.

  2. Not started

    The evidence-based reservation is not abolished; it is required by appropriation. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 directs that of the $101,000,000 for teen pregnancy prevention, after up to 10 percent for support activities, 75 percent 'shall be for replicating programs that have been proven effective through rigorous evaluation to reduce teenage pregnancy' - the statutory hook the TPP Evidence Review list exists to satisfy. As of the enactment date no HHS action had abolished an approved-curriculum or evidence-based list at OASH or ACF.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Lead, not Evidence: the Office of Population Affairs’ TPP Evidence Review page (https://opa.hhs.gov/research-evaluation/teen-pregnancy-prevention-program-evaluations/tpp-evidence-review) and its TPP Successful Strategies page now refuse to open, showing an “Access denied - You are not authorized to access this page” message, while still appearing in the site’s sitemap (opa.hhs.gov/sitemap.xml), which is what an unpublished Drupal page looks like. That would be the abolition the Quote asks for, but the refusal carries no date, and the OPA newsroom (opa.hhs.gov/about/news/opa-newsroom) is unpublished the same way, so the pattern is as consistent with a site restructure as with a policy decision. Not Evidence.
  • The earlier observation that the two list pages “still appear in the sitemap” no longer holds: the sitemap was read in full on 2026-09-03 (212 URLs) and neither is in it. Both still refuse to open however we try. The refusal remains a fact about the site, not an instrument, and carries no date — which is why the Status of partial rests on the NOFO and its Q&A instead.
  • One operational fact from the Q&A: “the current training center for TPP grant programs has ended and a funding opportunity to recompete the award recently closed. OPA anticipates making an award for the new TPP Training Center by September 30, 2026.”
  • Shared instrument. NOFO AH-TP1-26-001 and its Q&A are also the Evidence for #1323 (create criteria for evaluating sex education curricula). What they do to this Quote is remove the approved-program list; what they do to #1323’s is publish the criteria that replaced it. The two readings are opposite faces of one act and are stated as such in both notes.
  • One search covered the four p. 477 sex-education asks — this one, #1320, #1321 and #1323.
Action
abolish
Object
HHS approved sex education curriculum lists
ID
1322