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School Nutrition and Student Discipline: Effects of Schoolwide Free Meals

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  • Nora E. Gordon
  • Krista J. Ruffini

Abstract

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 free meals. We examine whether CEP affects disciplinary outcomes, focusing on the use of suspensions. We use school discipline measures from the Civil Rights Data Collection and rely on the timing of pilot implementation of CEP across states to assess how disciplinary infractions evolve within a school as it adopts CEP. We find modest reductions in suspension rates among elementary and middle but not high school students. While we are unable to observe how the expansion of free school meals affects the dietary intake of students in our national sample, we do observe that for younger students, these reductions are concentrated in areas with higher levels of estimated child food insecurity. Our findings suggest that the impact of school-based child nutrition services extends beyond the academic gains identified in some of the existing literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Nora E. Gordon & Krista J. Ruffini, 2018. "School Nutrition and Student Discipline: Effects of Schoolwide Free Meals," NBER Working Papers 24986, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24986
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhao, Chunkai & Chen, Boou & Song, Zhiyong, 2024. "School nutritious feeding and cognitive abilities of students in poverty: Evidence from the nutrition improvement program in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Andres Cuadros‐Meñaca & Michael R. Thomsen & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2023. "School breakfast and student behavior," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 99-121, January.
    3. Chambers, Stephanie & Boydell, Nicola & Ford, Allison & Eadie, Douglas, 2020. "Learning from the implementation of Universal Free School Meals in Scotland using Normalisation Process Theory: Lessons for policymakers to engage multiple stakeholders," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. Marcus, Michelle & Yewell, Katherine G., 2022. "The Effect of Free School Meals on Household Food Purchases: Evidence from the Community Eligibility Provision," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Cory Koedel & Eric Parsons, 2020. "The Effect of the Community Eligibility Provision on the Ability of Free and Reduced-Price Meal Data to Identify Disadvantaged Students," Working Papers 2005, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    6. Gagliano, Katrina M. & Yassa, Monica O. & Winsler, Adam, 2023. "Stop the shame and the hunger: The need for school meal program reform," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Sofía Collante Zárate & Catherine Rodríguez & Fabio Sanchez, 2022. "El poder de un refrigerio. La alimentación escolar y sus efectos educativos en Colombia," Documentos CEDE 20223, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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