How Restricting Categorical Eligibility for SNAP Affects Access to Free School Meals

Autor/inn/en	Blagg, Kristin; Rainer, Macy; Waxman, Elaine
Institution	Urban Institute
Titel	How Restricting Categorical Eligibility for SNAP Affects Access to Free School Meals
Quelle	(2019), (13 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Eligibility; Welfare Services; Welfare Recipients; Lunch Programs; Costs; Poverty; Public Schools + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Eignung; Fürsorgeeinrichtung; Sozialhilfeempfänger; Sozialhilfeempfängerin; Mittagessen; Cost; Kosten; Armut; Public school; Öffentliche Schule
Abstract	The administration has proposed significant changes to broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE) in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which allows states to reduce some of the administrative burden associated with enrolling someone in SNAP. These changes will also affect the National School Lunch Program, which interacts with SNAP to determine free lunch eligibility for both individual students and entire schools. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) calculates that the proposed revision to BBCE could cause 982,000 students to lose their automatic eligibility for free lunch. However, this estimate only relates to individual students. Because of the participation requirements of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), the BBCE revisions could result in entire schools losing their ability to provide free lunches to all students. Thus, students not participating in SNAP will also lose free meals. This brief explores this impact, which the administration's original analysis omitted. We estimate that roughly 142,000 students (1.1 percent of students at schools with community eligibility) attend schools that could lose community eligibility entirely. As stated, if a school loses community eligibility, it loses the ability to provide free lunch to all of its students. Enrollment at a CEP school has proven health, educational, and behavioral benefits for all students, not just those who qualify for free lunch because of their family's income. Additionally, we estimate that 1.05 million students, 7.7 percent of students at CEP schools, could see their schools lose full reimbursement for school meals. The federal government reimburses schools for the cost of free lunch based on the percentage of students who are directly certified for free meals through their participation in SNAP or other safety net programs. If the share of students identified as free lunch eligible through an administrative match dips below 62.5 percent, each student not directly certified represents an additional financial cost-imposed on the school. This increased financial burden could lead schools to opt out of CEP. Despite several unknowns that limit our analysis, we find compelling evidence that the potential nutritional and financial impact of this rule change is greater than the administration originally reported. The proposed restrictions on BBCE would put many more students at risk of losing universal free meals at their school, despite the substantial associated benefits. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01