WRAL News analyzed the impact of adopting the Community Eligibility Provision, a federal program that provides public schools with universal free lunch, on Title I funding. Our analysis found that participating in CEP might address food insecurity, but it could cost schools thousands of dollars in federal aid towards school supplies, improving curricula and hiring extra staff.

Read the full story here.

The Community Eligibility Provision was launched nationally in 2014 with a simple goal: Universal free lunch, no questions asked. One Durham principal said the program has been a blessing for her school.

Research shows that participating in CEP increases the number of children eating, boosts student achievement and reduces suspension rates. Adopting CEP also means that families no longer need to file for free and reduced price lunch, which can be a tedious process.

Despite previously having been among those with the most unpaid meals, all 13 Durham public schools that now participate in the CEP program have zero debt.

But last year, Durham Public Schools still managed to rack up over $209,000 in school lunch debt. That’s roughly 72,000 unpaid lunches, over four times the average starting teacher salary, and the most debt the district has seen in the past eight years. And when families can't or won't pay their tab, the school district foots the bill-taking away from funds that could go towards school supplies or additional programming.

That debt is concentrated among a small group of low-income schools: just 23 percent of schools accounted for 40 percent of all unpaid meals. They were all eligible to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision.

If they had adopted the provision, school lunch debt could have dropped by up to $80,000.

This poses a question: With such a seemingly perfect solution to addressing food insecurity and mitigating debt, why are only half of the schools eligible for CEP participating?

A WRAL analysis found that one unitented consequence of adopting CEP is the risk of losing thousands of dollars in Title I funding, putting two federal programs at odds.

Read more about our findings here.

WRAL used the following publicly available data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction:

• CEP eligibility, 2014-15 through 2018-19
• Title I allocations, 2018-19

We also obtained school lunch debt data from the 2010-11 through 2017-18 school years from James Keaten, Durham's director of Child Nutrition Services.

Annual CEP eligibility data for 2015-2019 was obtained from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and filtered to Durham Public Schools. The data used to determine CEP participation in Durham Public Schools for the 2019-20 school year was obtained from James Keaten, the district's director of Child Nutrition Services.

Title I funding data was obtained from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction CCIP website. To obtain the data, go to: Search > Enter school district name or code > Select district > Funding > Funding Applications > Select year and "Last approvided funding application" > Consolidated > Title IA > School Allocations - PPA List.

We then merged CEP eligibility and Title I funding data by year and school code.

Title I funding is first allocated to school districts based on the number of low-income students. In Durham, like many other districts, those funds are then allocated to individual schools based on a ranking system: Schools are first ranked by the percentage of low income students, and then split into poverty bands based on those percentages. Schools in the same band receive the same allocation of Title I funding per pupil. The 2018-19 Title I poverty bands and per pupil allocations are roughly:

In CEP schools, the percentage of low-income students is determined by federal measures---primarily by participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps---multiplied by 1.6. In non-CEP schools, the percentage of low-income students is the percentage of those who receive free and reduced price lunch.

In order to estimate how CEP would impact Title I funding, we calculated how many schools would shift rankings had every school eligible for CEP participated in the program. To determine these shifts for the 2018-19 school year, we used 2018 CEP eligibility data and 2019 Title I school allocation data.

For CEP eligibile, non-participating schools, we replaced the percentage of low-income students in the Title I allocation data with the federal percentage of low-income students multiplied by 1.6. We then recalculated school rankings and counted how many shifted ranks.

Assuming the same number of schools would be placed in each poverty band and that each band would receive the same allocation of Title I funding per pupil, we recalculated the amount of Title I funding each school would receive.

If all 12 Durham public schools eligible but not participating in CEP had adopted the program this year, 16 schools in the district would have shifted ranks, according to our analysis.

Our findings also estimate that at least one school could lose over $30,000 in Title I funding had all schools eligible for CEP participated.