Access to the School Breakfast Program Is Associated with Higher Attendance and Test Scores among Elementary School Students

Background: The School Breakfast Program (SBP) has grown and evolved substantially since its inception, yet relatively little is known about its impact on school engagement and academic outcomes. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of the SBP on school attendance and standardized test scores, as well as how impacts differ among student subpopulations and between traditional and nontraditional program models. Methods: The study uses administrative data from similar to 1000 Wisconsin elementary schools during 2009-2014, including almost all public elementary schools in the state except those in Milwaukee Public School District. Over the 5-y period, 168 schools in our sample introduced a new SBP and/or changed the location of breakfast (classroom or cafeteria) or the payment structure. The impact of breakfast availability and type was evaluated using multivariable regression models with school fixed effects and extensive demographic controls, leveraging within-school changes in SBP availability and type. Results: Implementing the SBP was associated with a 3.5-percentage-point reduction in the percentage of students with low attendance and an increase of 0.08 SD in normalized reading scores among likely-participant boys (P = 0.015), with no impact among girls. When breakfast was offered free to all students, the probability of low attendance was 3.5 percentage points lower than with traditional SBP for a broad cross-section of students (P < 0.001), and math and reading scores were 0.07 and 0.04 SD higher among the higher-income sample, respectively (P = 0.001 and P = 0.035, respectively). When breakfast was offered in the classroom, neither attendance nor reading scores differed relative to cafeteria-based SBP, whereas math scores among likely-participant boys were 0.05 SD lower (P = 0.045). Conclusions: Offering breakfast at school can modestly improve educational engagement and performance, but benefits differ across children and by program structure. Universally free breakfast appears particularly beneficial to both attendance and test scores.