EdWorkingPaper No. 19-31 - The Effect of the Community Eligibility Provision on the Ability of Free and Reduced-Price Meal Data to Identify Disadvantaged Students - Research summary

Sep 4, 2026

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The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) changes the federally administered National School Lunch Program by allowing participating schools to classify all students as eligible for free meals based on low-income status rather than individual circumstances. This paper evaluates how the CEP affects the use of free and reduced-price meal (FRM) data as a proxy for student disadvantage in education research and policy. Results show essentially no effect at the individual student level, while the school-level share of FRM-eligible students changes the informational content relevant for policy uses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages56

Reading Time2 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Data quality concerns in the post-CEP era

EdWorkingPaper No. 19-31 The Effect of the Community Eligibility Provision on the Ability of Free and Reduced-Price Meal Data to Identify Disadvantaged Students Cory Koedel University of Missouri Eric Parsons University of Missouri The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a policy change to the federally-administered National School Lunch Program that allows schools serving low-income populations to classify all students as eligible for free meals, regardless of individual circumstances. This has implications for the use of free and reduced-price meal (FRM) data to proxy for student disadvantage in education research and policy applications, which is a common practice. We document empirically how the CEP has affected the value of FRM eligibility as a proxy for student disadvantage. At the individual student level, we show that there is essentially no effect of the CEP. However, the CEP does meaningfully change the information conveyed by the share of FRM-eligible students in a school. It is this latter measure that is most relevant for policy uses of FRM data. Note: Portions of this paper were previously circulated under the title “Using Free Meal and Direct Certification Data to Proxy for Student Disadvantage in the Era of the Community Eligibility Provision.”We have since split the original paper into two parts. This is the first part. VERSION: April 2020 Suggested citation: Koedel, Cory, and Eric Parsons. (2020). The Effect of the Community Eligibility Provision on the Ability of Free and Reduced-Price Meal Data to Identify Disadvantaged Students. (EdWorkingPaper: 20-31) . Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: [https://doi.org/10.26300/7syx-6p44](https://doi.org/10.26300/7syx-6p44) The Effect of the Community Eligibility Provision on the Ability of Free and Reduced-Price Meal Data to Identify Disadvantaged Students Cory Koedel Eric Parsons March 2020 The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a policy change to the federallyadministered National School Lunch Program that allows schools serving low-income populations to classify all students as eligible for free meals, regardless of individual circumstances. This has implications for the use of free and reduced-price meal (FRM) data to proxy for student disadvantage in education research and policy applications, which is a common practice. We document empirically how the CEP has affected the value of FRM eligibility as a proxy for student disadvantage. At the individual student level, we show that there is essentially no effect of the CEP. However, the CEP does meaningfully change the information conveyed by the share of FRM-eligible students in a school. It is this latter measure that is most relevant for policy uses of FRM data. Note: Portions ofthis paper were previously circulated under the title “Using Free Meal and Direct Certification Data to Proxy for Student Disadvantage in the Era of the Community Eligibility Provision.”We have since split the originalpaper into two parts. This is the first part. Acknowledgement We thank the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for data access and Yang An, Cheng Qian, and Jing Song for research assistance. We thank participants at the 2019 CALDER and APPAM conferences and especially Kristin Blagg, Carrie Conaway, Erica Greenberg, Michael Hurwitz, CJ Libassi, and Leigh Wendenoja for comments and suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from CALDER, which is funded by a consortium of foundations (for more information about CALDER funders, [see](see www.caldercenter.org/about-calder)[ ](see www.caldercenter.org/about-calder)[www.caldercenter.org/about-calder](see www.caldercenter.org/about-calder)). All opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our funders, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or the institutions to which the author(s) are affiliated. All e

FAQs

What does the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) change about meal eligibility data?

The CEP lets participating schools classify all students as eligible for free meals based on the school’s low-income population rather than each student’s individual circumstances.

How does the CEP affect FRM eligibility as a proxy for disadvantaged students at the individual level?

The study finds essentially no effect at the individual student level.

Why is the school-level share of FRM-eligible students important for policy uses of FRM data?

The CEP meaningfully changes the information conveyed by the share of FRM-eligible students in a school, making this latter measure most relevant for policy applications.

Sep 4, 2026

Uploaded by Himbo