Schoolwide Free Meals and Student Discipline: Effects of the Community Eligibility Provision

Autor/inn/en	Gordon, Nora; Ruffini, Krista
Titel	Schoolwide Free Meals and Student Discipline: Effects of the Community Eligibility Provision
Quelle	In: Education Finance and Policy, 16 (2021) 3, S.418-442 (25 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1557-3060
Schlagwörter	Breakfast Programs; Lunch Programs; Discipline; Suspension; Eligibility; Low Income Students; Poverty; Public Schools; Prevention; Racial Differences; White Students; African American Students; Hispanic American Students; Elementary School Students; Gender Differences; Males; Females; Middle School Students; High School Students + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Schulfrühstück; Mittagessen; Disziplin; Ausschluss; Schulausschluss; Eignung; Armut; Public school; Öffentliche Schule; Prävention; Vorbeugung; Rassenunterschied; African Americans; Student; Students; Afroamerikaner; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Hispanic; Hispanic Americans; Hispanoamerikaner; Geschlechterkonflikt; Male; Männliches Geschlecht; Weibliches Geschlecht; Middle school; Middle schools; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; High school; High schools; Oberschule
Abstract	This paper examines whether schoolwide free meals affect disciplinary outcomes, focusing on the use of suspensions. Under the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), schools serving sufficiently high-poverty populations may enroll their entire student bodies in free lunch and breakfast programs, extending free meals to some students who would not qualify individually, and potentially decreasing the stigma associated with school meals. We leverage the staggered rollout of CEP across states and school discipline measures for the near-universe of public schools to assess how disciplinary infractions change within a school as it becomes eligible for CEP. We conclude that schoolwide free meals reduced suspensions statistically significantly by approximately 17 percent for white male elementary students. Point estimates for other subgroups in elementary schools, and overall, are negative but smaller in magnitude; while treatment effects for black students are statistically insignificant, we also cannot rule out equal treatment effects between black and white students. We lack statistical power to rule large positive or negative effects for middle and high school students. The reductions among white students are somewhat larger in areas with high baseline poverty rates, consistent with universal meals programs serving an unmet need. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01