Food Instability and Academic Achievement: A Quasi-Experiment Using SNAP Benefit Timing

Abstract

Although social policies aimed at low-income families are thought to promote children's educational success, little research has examined how these policies are related to children's academic achievement. This article focuses on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the United States' largest food assistance program. Using administrative data on over 148,000 SNAP-receiving public school children, we analyze the recency of SNAP benefit transfer and children's end-of-grade math and reading achievement test scores. Results indicate differences in students' math and reading performance based on the recency of SNAP benefit transfer. Although the relationship is stronger for reading than for math, the relationship between students' test scores and SNAP transfer is roughly curvilinear. Test scores peak in the third week following benefit transfer.

Daily Food Insufficiency and Worry among Economically Disadvantaged Families with Young Children

“…Of particular concern is that the within‐month instability associated with the depletion of SNAP benefits early in a benefit month may impact the development and academic performance of low‐income children. A study that was able to disentangle calendar month from SNAP month linked SNAP administrative data to End‐of‐Grade test scores and found a curvilinear relationship between test performance and benefit transfer timing, with students performing best approximately two to three weeks after the SNAP distribution date (Gassman‐Pines & Bellows, ). Another study linked SNAP administrative data to school disciplinary records and found that school disciplinary events increase significantly at the end of a SNAP month (Gennetian, Seshadri, Hess, Winn, & Goerge, ).…”

Exploring the experiences and dynamics of an unconditional cash transfer for low-income mothers: A mixed-methods study

“…Overall, the UCT appeared to provide mothers with a feeling of psychological security. Other research has found that a lack of economic slack creates a heightened vulnerability to income scarcity at the end of the month, with possible repercussions across a wide range of well-being outcomes (Gennetian et al 2016;Gassman-Pines and Bellows 2018). The predictability of the cash transfer allowed mothers in our study to more stably engage in strategies like borrowing money from friends with quick payback.…”

Food Insecurity: What Are Its Effects, Why, and What Can Policy Do About It?

“…SNAP receipt reduces grade retention among food-insecure children (Beharie et al, 2017), and SNAP is associated with both math-readiness (Hong & Henly, 2020) and increased math and reading scores for girls (Frongillo et al, 2006). Finally, research leveraging administrative data from North Carolina found a curvilinear relationship between timing of SNAP benefit receipt and students’ math and reading test scores, such that scores peak 17 to 19 days after benefit transfer and then decrease as families presumably have reduced access to food (Gassman-Pines & Bellows, 2018).…”