Greetings—

Proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid as written in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would threaten student access to free school meals, Urban Institute expert Emily Gutierrez finds.

Students who participate in safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid automatically qualify for free or reduced-price school meals through direct certification. Millions of students also utilize federal universal free meal (UFM) programs like the Community Eligibility Provision, which requires direct certification rates of at least 25 percent to participate.

Using an analysis of data from 37 states and the District of Columbia, Gutierrez shares that cuts to SNAP benefits could lower direct certification rates, jeopardizing access to UFM programs and their benefits for millions of students. She finds that:

1.4 million school-age children could lose access to SNAP if all three proposed changes—cost-sharing, work requirements, and broad-based categorical eligibility—were to be enacted.
7.5 million students would be at risk of losing individual access to free meals based on the loss of their school or state’s UFM policy.
At least 181,000 students would no longer qualify for free school meals through direct certification of SNAP eligibility and would have to fill out a meal application form, a process associated with stigma.

Read the report to learn more, which includes state-by-state estimates of SNAP benefit losses for school-aged children and losses to free school meals. In a blog post, Urban expert Catherine Kuhns explores how changes to Head Start funding could threaten food access for more children.

If you have questions about the research, please reply to this email. We’re happy to connect you with an expert.

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