A Promising Alternative to Subsidized Lunch Receipt as a Measure of Student Poverty

Historically, low-income students have been identified in schools by receipt of the federal free or reduced lunch program, but this measure is becoming irrelevant and misleading as more districts offer “community eligible” free lunches to all students. As a result, some states have begun to identify low-income students by family participation in programs like TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, and foster care. The post’s authors at the Brookings Institution applaud these methodological changes because they will yield more accurate data on the achievements of disadvantaged students without including non low-income students who may be receiving free or reduced price lunch. This post highlights practices and data from states, such as Delaware, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Tennessee, as well as the District of Columbia, as exemplary initiatives of linked data measure systems.