In a report submitted to Congress, the Agriculture Department says schools are doing a better job of identifying students who are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches, but some states are much better than others, with Idaho ranking near the bottom.
According to the report, in 2008-2009, 78 percent of schools identified eligible students by using government records of which households already receive aid like food stamps. Use of the so-called direct certification method, the most efficient way to enroll school children in subsidized lunch programs, was up 11 percentage points from the previous year.
Direct certification helps eliminate the lengthy application process for free meals.
Despite the overall improvement, the report shows a wide disparity in performance from state to state.
The top four states – Alaska, Delaware, New York and Tennessee – all directly enrolled more than 90 percent of students from households that receive food stamps.
The bottom four – the District of Columbia, Idaho, Missouri and New Hampshire – directly enrolled 50 percent or fewer students whose families received food stamps.
The report concludes that schools lagging in efficiently enrolling kids in their lunch programs are disproportionately smaller and rural.
The school lunch program provides low-cost or free lunches to 31 million children each school day. (AP)
