(P02-030-25) School Participation in the Community Eligibility Provision Before and After the USDA Eligibility Threshold Policy Change

Objectives: The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) provides qualifying schools the option to serve free meals to all students. In October 2023, the eligibility threshold for schools to participate in CEP was expanded, increasing access for additional schools to adopt CEP. The objective of the study was to examine the impact of the policy change on Arizona CEP school participation and explore variations in participation based on school-level characteristics, both before and after the policy change.

Methods: School CEP participation was obtained for July 2022 to June 2024 from the Arizona Department of Education (n=1458). Urbanicity and race/ethnicity data was gathered from the National Center of Education Statistics. Descriptive analyses examined trends in participation among CEP eligible schools before and after policy implementation.

Results: The number of schools participating in CEP increased from 482 to 738 before and after the change in CEP policy, representing a 53.1% increase. Among CEP eligible schools, urban schools participating in CEP increased 66.8%, from 368 to 614 schools, and rural schools participating in CEP increased 8.7%, from 103 to 112 schools, pre- and post-policy change. Schools with a Hispanic majority student enrollment saw a 59.8% increase in school CEP participation, increasing from 301 to 486 participating schools.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of expanding the eligibility threshold to increase school participation in CEP and provide healthy school meals to all students. However, not all eligible schools adopted CEP following the change in policy, indicating the need to change the multiplier used to determine federal reimbursement amounts and investigate additional strategies to further increase CEP participation among eligible schools.

Funding Sources: This study was funded by Arizona Food Bank Network and NIH T32 grant.