This new four-page issue brief details two approaches to ensuring that free and reduced-price school meals go to eligible families. The brief finds that direct certification is useful in improving program access, although it could reach more eligible households. However, a pilot program that...

Over the years, concern has mounted that many of the more than 26 million children certified to receive free or reduced-price meals may be ineligible for these benefits. This brief looks at the issue of reducing payment errors in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast...

About 61 percent of school districts used direct certification in the NSLP in the 2001-02 school year, the same share as in 1996. Direct certification increased the number of children certified for free meals by about 400,000 and slightly increased overall NSLP participation. Under direct...

Under the policy of direct certification for free school meals, school districts certify for free meals those enrolled students who are in households getting food stamps or welfare, based on information shared by state food stamp and welfare agencies. Students in these eligible households are...