Child Nutrition Program Reauthorization Center

Overcertification Talking Points

The National School Lunch Program has a long history of improving children's health and well-being. There are indications that during the reauthorization of the child nutrition programs this year, the House and Senate will propose a substantial increase in the percentage of children who will have to prove how little their families earn in order to qualify for free or reduced price school lunch.

Expert analysis of a widely cited USDA "overcertification" study found the study's conclusions highly questionable:

• USDA's estimate compares apples and oranges. USDA compared an annual Census estimate of the number of eligible children with the actual number of free school lunch certifications, which is based on monthly income. But due to family income fluctuations from month to month, experts agree that annual poverty estimates do not capture as many low-income families as monthly estimates do.
  
  
• A more accurate estimate casts doubt on the existence of an overcertification problem. When the number of children certified for free school lunch is compared with the corresponding monthly Census estimate of eligible children, the difference is only 2%. And a comparison of the free and reduced-price categories with monthly estimate finds that 15% of potentially eligible children are not certified to participate in the program. (See table below.)
  

While the USDA study does not prove that there is an overcertification problem, recent USDA research finds that increasing the percentage of families who have to document their income:

• Will NOT improve the accuracy of certifications in the program, and
  
  
• Will harm schools and children by deterring thousands of eligible low-income children from the school lunch program.
  

Other research shows that when income documentation is required, at least 3 eligible low-income children lose their free or reduced price lunch benefits for each ineligible child who is deterred from the program. Currently, 16 million children receive free or reduced price school lunches nationwide, so applying income verification to more families would harm eligible children and schools:

• For every one percent increase in the number of school meals applications to be verified, an estimated 120,400 thousand ELIGIBLE, low-income children would lose the free or reduced price school meals that they need.
  

• Educational programs that target low-income children and schools, such as Title I, often base their allocations on free or reduced price lunch certifications. With income documentation causing the loss of large numbers of eligible children, low-income schools would also lose significant portions of the educational funds that they need.

Let's take a more prudent course - figuring out the scope of any problem and finding out what solutions will not harm children and schools - before altering a program that serves 16 million low-income school children across the nation. Proposed solutions that are both sweeping and untested run too great a risk of fundamentally damaging a vital program with a long history of success.

Leaving no child behind means ensuring that low-income children have access to the nutrition they need to learn and develop, not imposing burdensome regulations on hard-working schools, and not putting more barriers in front of children who need the vital support of the National School Lunch Program.

Click here for more details on the debate over school lunch overcertification.

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Prepared by the Food Research & Action Center, 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009; 202-986-2200; www.frac.org