All Maine students now get free school lunches. What does that mean for poverty data? Portland Press Herald on March 11, 2024 at 11:19 am

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Maine was one of the first states to pass legislation providing free school lunches to all students after pandemic-era funding expired – a policy that has been adopted in seven other states and is being considered across the country.

But since the law took effect a year and a half ago, some districts have struggled with an unintended consequence: Now that parents no longer need to fill out applications to get their children access to free meals, officials have lost an important source of data on their district’s low-income households – information traditionally used for funding.

The free and reduced-price meal application, a federal form sent home with students at the start of the school year, allows districts to determine what percentage of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Read more from the Portland Press Herald.

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