Using American Community Survey Data to Expand Access to the School Meals Programs

The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), are key components of the nation's food security safety net, providing free or low-cost meals to millions of schoolchildren each day. To qualify their children each year for free or reduced-price meals, many families must submit applications that school officials distribute and review. To reduce this burden on families and schools and to encourage more children to partake of nutritious meals, USDA regulations allow school districts to operate their meals programs under special provisions that eliminate the application process and other administrative procedures in exchange for providing free meals to all students enrolled in one or more school in a district. FNS asked the National Academies' Committee on National Statistics and Food and Nutrition Board to convene a panel of experts to investigate the technical and operational feasibility of using data from the continuous American Community Survey (ACS) to estimate students eligible for free and reduced-price meals for schools and school districts. The ACS eligibility estimates would be used to develop "claiming percentages" that, if sufficiently accurate, would determine the USDA reimbursements to districts for schools that provided free meals to all students under a new special provision that eliminated the ongoing base-year requirements of current provisions. Using American Community Survey Data to Expand Access to the School Meals Program was conducted in two phases. It first issued an interim report (National Research Council, 2010), describing its planned approach for assessing the utility of ACS-based estimates for a special provision to expand access to free school meals. This report is the final phase which presents the panel's findings and recommendations. Table of ContentsFront MatterSummary1 Introduction2 The School Meals Programs3 Technical Approach4 Data Analysis and Results5 A Plan for Implementing the AEO6 Recommendations for Future WorkReferences and BibliographyAppendix A: Glossary of Acronyms and TermsAppendix B: Estimates of Eligible Students Using the American Community SurveyAppendix C: Model-Based Estimates for School Districts and School Attendance AreasAppendix D: American Community Survey (ACS) and Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE)-Like Tabulations Requested from the U.S. Census BureauAppendix E: Data Collected from School DistrictsAppendix F: Additional Information About the Panel's AnalysesAppendix G: Causes of Systematic Differences Between American Community Survey (ACS) and Administrative EstimatesAppendix H: Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff