The Healthy School Meals for All Program (HSMA) provides funding opportunities for Colorado public school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Programs (SBP) via reimbursement for meals provided to students who would otherwise pay full price for a meal. This reports provides an overview of…

This study evaluates the Dual Language Program (DLP) implemented at a Title I public school in Baltimore City during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. Building on previous research, the DLP's implementation, sustainability, and effects on students' learning outcomes were examined. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study's second…

This report examines the implementation of Summer 305, an enhanced summer program which operated from June 24 through July 26 during the summer of 2024 at 103 sites in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Twenty-two program offerings were provided to accelerate learning recovery, develop foundational skills, and address social and emotional needs.…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released an update to the nutrition standards schools must meet in the breakfasts and lunches served to more than 30 million children. The last time USDA fully updated school meal standards was in 2012. Research on the impact of those changes found that the nutritional quality of school meals…

The 2025 reconciliation bill, signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025, included a provision that allows states to opt into participating in a federal tax credit scholarship program. This program would provide a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit, up to $1,700 annually, for donations to scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) to…

Many educational policies hinge on the valid measurement of student economic disadvantage at the school level. Measures based on free and reduced-price lunch enrollment are used widely. However, recent research raises questions about their reliability, particularly following the introduction of universal free lunch in certain schools and…

During the 2019-20 school year, public schools identified 1.3 million students who were experiencing homelessness--2.5 percent of all those enrolled. With the added $800 million that Congress provided in 2021 through the American Rescue Plan's Homeless Children and Youth program (ARP-HCY), many states have started or expanded initiatives to…

Substance use--when people use drugs, alcohol, or tobacco in ways that can harm themselves or others--remains a persistent problem in the United States. Substance use can result in negative consequences, including poor school performance and diminished mental health. Research suggests that prevention programs for school-aged children may help…

Schools are a critical setting for improving child nutrition and food security and preventing obesity in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture mandates that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--Education, known as CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) in California, implements obesity prevention efforts that utilize…

The Charter Schools Program (CSP) is the nation's only source of dedicated federal funding to support the creation, expansion, and replication of public charter schools. Since FY2019, the CSP has been flat funded at $440 million. The CSP amounts to less than 1% of federal spending on K-12 education, however, it has a substantial impact on the…

In this paper, we explore how tutoring could become a permanent feature of the U.S. public education system. We outline a blueprint for taking tutoring to scale nationally and estimate its costs, while highlighting a range of design and implementation challenges. Our blueprint is centered on ten core principles and a federal architecture to…

Theories abound on why school shootings occur. Current literature centers on shooter profiles and rarely focuses on where the shootings occur. This study investigates the relationship between impoverished schools and if those schools are more likely to experience a school shooting than non-impoverished schools. Four factors of poverty were…

The analyses presented here are part of a larger project, "Understanding Children's Transitions from Head Start to Kindergarten" (HS2K), a joint research venture between NORC at the University of Chicago, Child Trends, and the National P-3 Center at University of Colorado Denver, with funding from the U.S. Administration for Children and…

In this study, we used data from a cohort of 4,033 Tulsa kindergarten students to investigate the relationship between pre-K enrollment and later college enrollment. Specifically, we tested whether participation in the Tulsa Public Schools universal pre-K program and the Tulsa Community Action Project (CAP) Head Start program predicted enrollment…

Policymakers continue to champion private school voucher programs as a way to improve educational outcomes through increased school choice. For nearly two decades Congress has supported vouchers in Washington, DC, providing federal funds for the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) to allow low-income children to attend private schools in the…