Direct certification simplifies the process of certifying certain children for free school meals by eliminating the need for households to apply. The 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act required all local educations agencies (LEAs) to establish a system of direct certification by...

In this article Mathematica's family support experts present final findings from a large-scale, random assignment evaluation of Building Strong Families (BSF), a program offering relationship skills education to low-income, unmarried parents who are expecting or recently had a baby. The study...

This study investigated factors that influence students’ participation in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs using recent data from a large, nationally representative sample of students certified for free and reduced-price meals during the 2005–2006 school year. Whether...

This report to Congress assesses the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals without the need for household applications by using data from other means-tested programs. At the start of the 2010-2011 school year, 1.9 million more children were...