Student Well-Being Q&A

Universal Free School Meals Might Improve Discipline Rates. Here’s How

By Arianna Prothero — January 31, 2024 4 min read
Conceptual school lunch on tray in blues and reds.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

New research has found that providing free school meals to all students regardless of their families’ income lowers discipline rates. But not because free food keeps students from getting “hangry"—the researchers believe that eliminating the stigma of qualifying for free and reduced-priced meals was what drove down the number of discipline referrals.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina and the U.S. Census Bureau compared schools in Oregon that started offering universal free school meals through the federal school meals program’s community eligibility provision to those who did not. The researchers linked school data on free and reduced-price lunch enrollment and discipline referrals to data from the census and tax records to get a granular look at how the policy affected different students.

The way schools distribute free and reduced-price meals makes it easy to pick out which kids come from families without a lot of money, said Thurston Domina, a professor at UNC’s school of education and one of the authors of the study. For example, students might have to stand in a special line in the cafeteria.

“We’ve got good research to suggest that students see that and that they associate school meals with poverty,” Domina said. “And we’ve got good research to suggest that stigma associated with poverty carries with students throughout the school day.”

There are some limitations to the study, said Domina. The study examined only Oregon schools and as a result, there are not many Black students in the sample. And it’s not clear how the effects of universal free meals would translate to affluent schools—schools only qualify for the community eligibility provision of the federal school meals program when they serve large numbers of students who are living in poverty.

Even so, Domina said in a conversation with Education Week that the findings hold a lot of valuable information for educators and policymakers, especially as a growing number of states have passed laws making school meals free to all students.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you determine that stigma was the issue?

In a lot of schools, there’s not a one-to-one relationship between family income and free lunch enrollment. There are a decent number of kids from low-income families who don’t enroll for free or reduced-price lunch.

And then there are a decent number of kids whose family incomes are relatively middle class who may enroll when their family goes through lean times and stay enrolled in the meal [program]. So, these relatively well-off kids get into free and reduced-price lunch.

Thurston Domina

Our hypothesis is that if stigma’s the mechanism, it should be the kids who had gotten the free meals who should benefit the most [regardless of whether their family was low-income or not].

And the kids who had previously gotten free meals are seeing the biggest reductions in suspensions when those free meals become available to all kids in their schools.

Kids from low-income families who had previously received free and reduced-price lunch had the biggest effect.

Relatively affluent kids who had already received free meals received the second biggest benefit in terms of their chances of being suspended. So, they were being marked as poor kids, and they were carrying around that stigma.

Is this because of student behavior changing or because of how teachers perceive and judge those students?

Both of those are outcroppings of stigma, right? The student behavior and the teacher perception are two different elements of stigma. It would be great to know the extent to which both are operating.

Suspension and exposure to exclusionary discipline in school is largely the interaction of two different things: what the student does and how the teacher perceives what they do. In many ways, those two things are inseparable, because teacher perceptions can drive student behavior, which can drive teacher perceptions, and on and on. It’s a vicious cycle.

How do you know that policy changes around discipline didn’t account for the drop in suspensions?

Because the decline in the schools that implemented the free meals continued and accelerated when they implemented the free meals. Whereas it was starting to level out in the schools that did not.

The study was in an environment in the 2010s where there was a lot of attention to exclusionary discipline. And schools across the state we’re working to find alternatives to exclusionary discipline. Universalizing school meals contributed to that effort in a way that not universalizing school meals just didn’t.

What is the big takeaway for education leaders and policymakers?

I’m speaking just for myself because this work is [a] collaboratory with the U.S. Census Bureau, [which] does not make policy recommendations.

But I think our findings are really encouraging for efforts to get free meals to more students. I think getting nutrition into kids’ bodies is just a good thing for a society to do. And I think that our research suggests that doing so can help create happier and healthier and more egalitarian social environments in schools.

Events

Student Well-Being K-12 Essentials Forum Social-Emotional Learning 2025: Examining Priorities and Practices
Join this free virtual event to learn about SEL strategies, skills, and to hear from experts on the use and expansion of SEL programs.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Inside PLCs: Proven Strategies from K-12 Leaders
Join an expert panel to explore strategies for building collaborative PLCs, overcoming common challenges, and using data effectively.
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Webinar
Making Science Stick: The Engaging Power of Hands-On Learning
How can you make science class the highlight of your students’ day while
achieving learning outcomes? Find out in this session.
Content provided by LEGO Education

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being Q&A This School Counselor Has a Four-Legged Trick for Getting Tweens to Open Up
The 2025 School Counselor of the Year supports hundreds of middle schoolers with help from her therapy dog, Winston.
5 min read
Carmen Larson, 2025 School Counselor of the Year.
Carmen Larson, 2025 School Counselor of the Year.
Courtesy of the American School Counselor Association
Student Well-Being Opinion Generation Alpha Is Defined by Tragedy
Rising teens have direct digital access to unending pain, violence, and loss, writes Bettina L. Love.
3 min read
Digital art painting of girl looking at a glowing screen, acrylic on canvas texture, storytelling illustration
iStock/Getty Images + Education Week
Student Well-Being From Our Research Center Are Students Vaping More? Educators Think So
Teachers, principals, and district leaders are reporting an increase despite previous federal data showing teen vaping is declining.
3 min read
Student Well-Being Boys Want a Strong Relationship With Their Teachers. That Doesn't Always Happen
The key to inspiring boys in the classroom is a strong student-teacher relationship, experts say. Here's how to make it work.
7 min read
Jon Becker, upper school history and English teacher, has 9th grader Demetrios Karavedas stand on a chair and apologize for forgetting his book during their 9th grade English class at Boys’ Latin School of Maryland on Oct. 24, 2024 in Baltimore, Md.
Jon Becker, a history and English teacher at Boys' Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore, has 9th grader Demetrios Karavedas stand on a chair and apologize for forgetting his book on Oct. 24, 2024. Positive relationships with teachers matter for boys' academic motivation and success.
Jaclyn Borowski/Education Week