High-poverty districts should focus on implementing breakfast after the bell.Plymouth, MA – 3/25/2022 JLunch time at Plymouth Community Intermediate School during lunch time. A pandemic-triggered expansion of the federal school nutrition program, which has funded free school meals for all students nationwide since 2020, is now slated to end in June after Congress failed to authorize its extension. Advocates for Massachusetts children say it is time for the state to take over and pass legislation that would keep school lunches free for all indefinitely, at an estimated cost of $100 million per year. (Jonathan Wiggs /Globe Staff)Jonathan Wiggs/Globe StaffIn August 2020, then-governor Charlie Baker signed a law requiring every school where more than 60 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch to offer breakfast after the beginning of the instructional day, in a bid to boost student health and behavior.But a new report by the Eos Foundation suggests schools are falling short of the legislation’s goal of feeding more students. In the state’s 953 high-poverty schools, only 48 percent of students were eating school breakfast in March 2025. Implementation of the law got sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the foundation. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which tracks compliance with the law, found that as of 2024, around 180 high-poverty schools were not offering breakfast after the bell. (Another 100-plus schools at all income levels weren’t offering breakfast at all.) That same department memo said the agency is continuing to work with districts to bring them into compliance. The department hasn’t published an updated list of noncompliant schools this year.The state needs to push districts to comply with the rule. But even for the vast majority that are complying, schools need to ensure that their breakfast programs are implemented in a way that serves students’ needs so that they are actually eating the meals. Particularly in districts where students are less likely to have access to consistent, nutritional breakfasts at home, providing breakfast at school can have health and academic benefits. A 2023 review of literature on “breakfast after the bell” found that more students eating breakfast in school was associated with improved diet quality and improved classroom behavior, particularly among students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds and low-income students. The evidence is mixed on whether school breakfast is correlated with attendance or academic performance, but some studies suggest that attendance improves and test scores increase when students eat school breakfast, particularly among students with lower achievement levels. Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, executive director of Children’s HealthWatch, said providing breakfast improves food security, which impacts behavior. Children who skip breakfast are more likely to go to the nurse with a headache or stomachach Read More