Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This study examines the impact of universal access to free, nutritious meals on student achievement, absenteeism, and suspensions for public school students in North Carolina. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) provide free or reduced price (FRP) meals to low-income students across the United States. Traditionally, students had to meet program eligibility requirements and, in some cases, complete an application process to be certified to receive meal subsidies. Beginning in 2014-15, the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allows schools with large populations of low-income students to avoid the student application process by offering free meals to all students. This study leverages the opportunity provided by this change in program structure to analyze the impact of universal access to free meals on student outcomes.

Prior research demonstrates that improvements in nutrition are linked to greater student learning for low-income students. Several studies show positive impacts on educational outcomes from improved nutrition and the NSLP and SBP specifically. However, researchers find that levels of participation in social benefits, like school nutrition programs, are influenced by barriers, including knowledge of the program, administrative barriers in applying for the program, and psychological factors such as stigma. In addition, stigma attached to program participation may directly affect the outcomes of students, and universal access may reduce stigma they associated with participation. This study provides an exploration of the impact of access to free, nutritious meals on a broader group of students than those typically served under many traditional nutrition support programs. In addition, this study explores the impact of universal free meals on absences and suspensions which have rarely been examined in the literature.

This study uses a census sample of secondary administrative data on all public schools in North Carolina and all students enrolled in North Carolina public schools during the 2011-12 to 2015-16 school years. For the primary analysis, we use two complementary methods in order to provide a robust understanding of the effects of universal meals on student outcomes. The first method is a regression discontinuity design, which uses the sharp cut off in eligibility for CEP based on the number of students who are directly certified for free meals. This model provides a strong causal estimate by taking advantage of the fact that schools on either side of the eligibility threshold are very similar. However, the schools immediately below the cutoff may not benefit as much from CEP as those with larger numbers of directly certified students, so the regression discontinuity model may understate the true size of the effects. In order to address this shortcoming and estimate the effects of CEP for the whole population of schools, we will also use a difference-in-difference model to estimate the change in outcomes for schools that are eligible for CEP compared to schools that are not eligible for CEP. The difference-in-difference model uses data on student outcomes prior to the introduction of the program to control for differences in outcomes that are unrelated to CEP.