Background: Despite the establishment of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) in 2010, child nutrition programs continue to experience challenges impacting participation. Prior qualitative studies have explored how to reduce barriers to implementation of these programs in schools, but few studies have examined attitudes held by students, who…

Background: Despite the establishment of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) in 2010, child nutrition programs continue to experience challenges impacting participation. Prior qualitative studies have explored how to reduce barriers to implementation of these programs in schools, but few studies have examined attitudes held by students, who…

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…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine and discuss common challenges associated with obtaining the correct school meal benefits level from the National School Lunch and School Breakfast program application process. The findings provide insights and policy recommendations for improving school meal processes and reducing the…

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation's second-largest food and nutrition assistance program, providing billions of meals to tens of millions of children and adolescents each year. USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) periodically reports on NSLP policies and program operations, often after major changes to the program's rules…

Background: The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides >30 million meals to children daily; however, the specific nutrient composition of NSLP-selected and consumed meals for students from lower income and racial/ethnic minoritized backgrounds is unknown. Aims: To quantify the nutrients in school lunch selection and consumption among…

In this dissertation I use modern microeconomic methods to examine the impact of K-12 education policy interventions on student outcomes. In the first chapter I explore how increased funding for school policing and sentiment surrounding school policing can have downstream effects on student discipline, and how these effects vary by student and…

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) provide federal funding for school lunches and breakfasts served to nearly 30 million children daily in close to 94,000 schools. Because federal spending on NSLP and SBP depends in part on student participation in school meals, it may be of interest to Congress to…

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 allows school districts to provide free meals to all students if over 40 percent of them are directly certified as free-meal eligible. While emerging evidence documents positive effects on student behavior and academics, critics worry that CEP has unintended…

Poverty has an enormous impact on children and their success in school. Children with low socioeconomic status often perform poorly in reading. Poor reading skills often lead to truancy, low rates of high school graduation, low-paying jobs, and cycles of illiteracy in generations of families. Secondary data was collected from the Tennessee…

Quantitative methodology was utilized to assess factors influencing veteran school counselors' decisions to report suspected child abuse. Veteran school counselors were defined as having 6 or more years of experience working as a school counselor within a public or private school. This study is a focused examination of the responses of veteran…

The Utah State Board of Education Child Nutrition Programs (CNP) administers several federal food programs and sub programs, appropriated under United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and administered by Food and Nutrition Services (FNS). The federal food programs are primarily designed to ensure sponsors have the necessary knowledge and…

This study explores parental perception of public-school meals related to the healthfulness, tastiness, cost, value, and convenience of participation in the school lunch program and its impact on student participation in the school-provided lunch program. The researcher used data collected from an online distributed survey provided to families…

This report responds to the requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Direct certification is a process conducted by the states and by local educational agencies (LEAs) to certify eligible children for free meals without the need for household applications.…

The purpose of this study investigated the role of K-12 education in breaking the cycle of poverty in the Southeastern Public School District, focusing on the relationship between school-level poverty and key student outcomes: (a) graduation rates, (b) job placement, and (c) college acceptance. This study assessed the timing of federal-, state-,…