Do Universal Free School Meals Improve Student Behavior?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Social Interventions to Improve School Discipline and Student Behavior

Abstract

This study assesses the effects of offering universally free school meals via the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) on student behavioral incidents and disciplinary consequences. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we compare the incidence of disruptive behaviors and suspensions in North Carolina schools that adopted CEP to non-adopting schools. We observe no effect of CEP on the majority of outcomes measured; a few outcomes show small increases. In elementary schools certain behavioral incidents increase with CEP, but high schools demonstrate both increases and decreases. Results also differ when the sample is split by measures of economic need. These results emphasize the need for understanding how universal free meals may affect students and schools differently based on school level and economic disadvantage.

Authors

• Monica Mielke, University of Pennsylvania

• Rebecca Ann Davis, The University of Pennsylvania

• A. Brooks Bowden, University of Pennsylvania