Free and reduced-price meal (FRM) eligibility is commonly used in education research and policy applications as an indicator of student poverty. However, using multiple data sources external to the school system, we show that FRM status is a poor proxy for poverty, with eligibility rates far exceeding what would be expected based on stated income…

Child applications and awards for U.S. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) fell sharply at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cumulative applications from April to September 2020 were about 30% lower than applications over the same period in 2019 with substantial variation in rates of decline across local areas. In this article, we explore the…

In 2021-2022, Head Start served nearly 790,000 young children, primarily from low-income families. However, the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) estimates that far more children are eligible than can be served due to limited resources, heightening the importance of targeting services effectively. House Report 117-96 includes a…

The Annual Disability Statistics Compendium is a collection of important information about people with disabilities in each state of the United States. It includes data from multiple government agencies and programs. The Compendium gathers these statistics together, making it easy for everyone to find and use. In the Compendium is such information…

Homelessness is a reality for many families with young children in the United States. In 2017, about a third of all people who stayed in a shelter were families with children, and nearly half of children served by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-funded emergency and transitional housing providers were age five or younger…

Homelessness is a reality for many families with young children in the United States. In 2016, about a third of all people who stayed in a shelter were families with children, and nearly half of children served by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-funded emergency and transitional housing providers were age five or younger…

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was reauthorized to create school environments that provide nutrient-dense meals to students who are living in poverty. The free and reduced-price lunch program helps 19% of students who are living in poverty in America (Kids Count Data Center, 2017). These students arrive at school hungry and often times…

In 2012, the United States Department of Education announced the Race to the Top-District grants. One joint award was made to two large educational cooperatives in the same state that together represented 111 mostly rural schools in 22 districts. One of the grant's identified four essential projects was the implementation of personalized learning.…

With the economic halt precipitated by the COVID-19 virus, states are starting to prepare for and beginning to address the budgetary squeeze that is sure to come absent of massive federal stimulus dollars. At the end of March, New York State was the first state to come out with a post-COVID-19 state budget (the Legislative Budget). In early April,…

During the U.S. post-WWII recovery, appropriations for school lunch became codified in the 1946 National School Lunch Act, fueling program growth in the baby boom era to 18.9 million participating children by 1967, or about 42 percent of 45 million enrolled students. Then, in 1968, two reports funded by the Field Foundation of New York highlighted…

The original purpose of the Title I program of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965" was to provide supplementary services to assist low-achieving students in high-poverty schools, and schools were required to target Title I funds specifically to serve such students. In 1978, the schoolwide program (SWP) option was…

The "Annual Disability Statistics Compendium" and its complement, the "Annual Disability Statistics Supplement" (ED620436), are summaries of statistics about people with disabilities and about the government programs which serve them. The Compendium, presents key overall statistics on topics including the prevalence of…

Nearly four million U.S. undergraduate college students are parents or guardians of children under the age of 18. These student parents, who already faced immense financial, child care, food, and housing insecurity before the COVID-19 pandemic, are now dealing with multiple new barriers, including school closures, lay-offs, and child care…

Is income during children's earliest years a key determinant of long-term child and adult success in the longer run? The research to date, Christopher Wimer and Sharon Wolf write, suggests that it is. Wimer and Wolf review substantial descriptive evidence that income can enhance child development and later adult outcomes, and that it does so most…

The National School Lunch Program's (NSLP) original goal was to help students in need, but policy changes in the past decade have made students from middle-income and upper-income families eligible for federally funded school meals. The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), an expansion of the NSLP enacted in 2010, effectively created a federal…