Two weeks ago, the USDA said that up to 982,000 children would lose automatic access to free meals at school under its plan to tighten SNAP eligibility rules. An additional 1.05 million children would be affected indirectly because they attend schools in low-income areas that serve meals for free to all students, says a study by the Urban Institute.
Schools might withdraw from the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows universal free meals, if the SNAP proposal is adopted and fewer children qualify for free meals, said the study, pointing to two important thresholds.
If at least 40 percent of their students come from low-income households, CEP allows schools to offer free meals to everyone; if more than 62.5 percent of a school’s students qualify for free meals because of SNAP or social safety net programs, the USDA provides full reimbursement for all meals. The USDA pays only a partial reimbursement when fewer than 62.5 percent of students are identified as low income.
“We calculate that about 1.05 million children could see their schools lose full reimbursement, potentially putting their CEP status at risk,” wrote the three authors of the study. “We estimate that loss of full reimbursement at CEP schools could cost more than $167 million in funding for school lunch over the course of a school year.”
In schools that slip below the 40 percent threshold, 142,000 children would be affected, said the study.
In the 2018-19 school year, more than 13.6 million students, or 27 percent of public school enrollment, ate meals for free at 28,000 schools because of CEP.
The Trump administration estimates that its proposal to restrict use of so-called categorical eligibility would end benefits for 3.1 million people. In a ripple effect, 982,000 children would lose automatic access to free school meals. In materials released last month, the USDA said 445,000 of them would still be eligible and could continue to receive meals for free if their parents filed the necessary paperwork. But 497,000 children “would become eligible for reduced-price meals” — 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch — and 40,000 would pay full price for a meal, said the USDA.
“We have found a greater population that would lose access to universal free meals because of their school losing its CEP status, which provides meals to all students if enough are directly certified through social safety net programs such as SNAP,” concluded the study. “CEP is associated with a range of positive academic, behavioral, and health outcomes for students.”
Today is the final day for public comment on the SNAP proposal. “We urge the department to withdraw this rule that would do so much harm to so many people,” said Richard Besser, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which provided funding for the Urban Institute study.
The Urban Institute study is available here.