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This paper discusses several of the problems inhibiting policy evaluation at the state and local levels, as well as the prospects for overcoming them and recommendations for facilitating tasks. Ironically, the very condition demanding program evaluation is the same one negating it, scarce resources. Scarce resources demand that critical decisions are necessary regarding service delivery and cost effectiveness, yet the very data gathering and analysis activities and trained personnel that can inform these decisions are considered too costly to be regular program features. Thus, the most general and pervasive problem surrounding program evaluation is this scarcity of resources. It affects all aspects of evaluation, from the most basic activities of data collection to its measurement and the quality and training of evaluation personnel. State and local program field offices are facing continual dilemmas of denying services to clients or reducing their own administrative costs. The administrative costs are the first to be realized and this de-emphasizes research and development activities for program evaluation. Projects are begun with no evaluation component. If evaluation is later requested, data collection becomes a complicated affair.