Academic and Attendance Outcomes after Participation in a School Breakfast Program.

Abstract

Little is known about how school breakfast programs are associated with school attendance and academic performance. This study evaluated Dallas Independent School District's (DISD) breakfast after the bell (BATB) program that provides breakfast for both habitually tardy and non-tardy students on (1) academic performance and (2) student attendance over 2 school years. A pre-post study design evaluated the impact of the BATB program in elementary/middle/high schools on student attendance and academic outcomes. Paired t-tests evaluated changes in outcomes between 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019 school years. The analytical sample consisted of 30,493 students (70.32% BATB participants, 50.47% male, 68.78% Hispanic). BATB participants were over 2.5 times more likely to attend school versus non-BATB participants (aOR=2.55; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.23-2.92; p < .001). Compared to pre-participation (2017-2018), unadjusted models showed 2018 to 2019 BATB participants' mean reading scores increased from 1502.72 to 1545.76 during the 2018 to 2019 academic year (p < .001). There were no significant changes in reading and math scores over the 2-year implementation after adjustment. Results here showed that a school breakfast program that is housed in a large public school system that serves predominantly low resource, ethnically diverse students is associated with increased student attendance.