Washington, D.C. — On Thursday in late March, leaders from the U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF) gathered for an urgent meeting. They received a stark warning: On Monday, ACF would be drastically transformed. With influential voices—including White House officials and business magnate Elon Musk—calling for the restructuring of federal agencies, cuts to essential social services became a looming reality.
As the news began to leak among ACF employees, anxiety swiftly turned to panic. ACF oversees a $70 billion division within the Department of Health and Human Services and serves more than 60 crucial programs, including child protective services, foster care, and financial assistance for low-income families. “If it looks nothing like it does today, what’s that going to mean for services for people on the ground?” one ACF employee pondered.
By April 1, approximately 500 ACF workers received termination notices as part of what has been described as President Donald Trump’s drive to downsize federal agencies. These job losses compounded prior staffing cuts initiated the moment Musk was appointed head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Former staff estimates show ACF’s personnel has decreased by about 40%, from 2,400 employees in January to around 1,500 in April.
Four affected employees, who spoke with The Imprint on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, detailed their experiences. They expressed a shared sense of confusion and secrecy regarding the restructuring process, claiming the termination paperwork was poorly executed and contained numerous inaccuracies.
Naomi Goldstein, who served as ACF’s research chief from 2004 to 2022, described the consequences for the employees as serious but emphasized that the real tragedy lies in the impact on vulnerable families relying on ACF services. “These are stealth policy decisions. If there’s nobody left to push the button to make grants for crucial services, states and localities won’t have money to provide those services,” Goldstein said. “Instead of policy change, they just fire all the people, and that work doesn’t get done.”
An HHS spokesperson maintained that “all statutorily required positions will remain intact” and the reorganization aims to improve service delivery. However, the fallout from employee terminations reverberates through the nation’s child welfare systems. Offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle that aided child welfare departments across 22 states have been completely shuttered.
U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders criticized the closures, underlining the essential roles these specialists played in ensuring compliance and administering federal funds. They labeled the job cuts as dangerous to child welfare in the states.
In Washington, entire program divisions, including the Social Services Block Grant team—responsible for $1.7 billion in annual funding for welfare services—were eliminated, raising concerns over whether essential programs would continue receiving support. Nancy Gutierrez, a spokesperson for Washington state’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, noted that while the impacts may take time to manifest, they will be significant. “We depend on our federal partners to ensure federal funds are distributed to our state for programs and initiatives,” she said.
In response to the layoffs, a coalition of 20 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit to reverse the terminations, claiming they are part of an unlawful strategy to dismantle HHS. In Congress, Democrats have expressed intense disapproval, warning that the cuts are “severe, complicated, and potentially irreversible.”
Amid the turmoil, laid-off employees reported a chaotic environment leading to their dismissals, with unrealistic demands imposed to justify their impending terminations. They recounted numerous occasions when their supervisors lacked understanding of the situation, learning about impending layoffs solely through media outlets. “We were reading things in the media and having a better sense of what was going on than from our internal guidance,” one staffer remarked.
Communication barriers heightened tensions further. On the morning of April 1, some employees received their termination emails before even having access to their work computers, leading to chaotic scenes as staff attempted to retrieve personal belongings from closed offices.
“Their cards had been terminated immediately,” stated one affected employee, describing a frantic scene. Staff members reported termination letters riddled with errors, including incorrect performance evaluations that jeopardized their future job prospects. One supervisor stressed the likelihood that inaccuracies were intentional, aiming to legitimize the layoffs.
Moving forward, the paths for terminated employees remain uncertain. Discussions of potential recoveries and class-action lawsuits are ongoing. However, no substantive job hunting can commence until June 2, when terminations are officially executed. Concerns persist regarding the future of essential programs and the well-being of the families that rely on them.
“It’s sad. I know I will figure something out and I’ll move on, but I worry about the impacts this will have on the programs,” a regional office employee stated. “Are they going to get the funding that they need?”
The long-term effects of these staffing cuts are particularly concerning for tribal child welfare programs that often operate with fewer resources. “We’re going to see a lot less tribes get direct funding from the federal government,” cautioned one former employee. With many staff lacking preparation for these abrupt changes, it could lead to dire situations for grant recipients and the populations they serve.
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