Direct Certification with Medicaid for Free and Reduced-Price Meals (DCM-F/RP) Demonstration

Description
The demonstration of Direct Certification with Medicaid for Free and Reduced-Price Meals (DCM-F/RP) allows authorized States and school districts to use information from Medicaid to identify students eligible to receive meals under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) for free or at a reduced price. District-level administrative records data on certification and NSLP and SBP participation were collected to evaluate the demonstration. The analysis sample includes 5,966 public, private, and charter school districts in the 15 States participating in the DCM-F/RP demonstration in school year (SY) 2019-20.
Study date(s) and duration
Data were collected from each State child nutrition agency for SY 2019–2020, a baseline year, and any years in between (if applicable). States started the demonstration in different years, so the baseline year is the year before the demonstration began in that state: SY 2015–2016 for Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia; SY 2016–2017 for California, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin; and SY 2017–2018 for Nevada.
Study spatial scale
Fifteen States participated in the DCM-F/RP demonstration. Six began conducting DCM-F/RP statewide in SY 2016–2017 (Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia), and one implemented DCM-F/RP in 14 districts that year and expanded to statewide implementation in SY 2017–2018 (California). Eight States began implementing DCM-F/RP in in SY 2017–2018 (Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin), although one State did not certify students through DCM-F/RP until SY 2018–2019 (Nevada).
Level of true replication
Unknown
Sampling precision
No sampling was involved in the collection of this data.
Level of subsampling
No sampling was involved in the collection of this data.
Study design
None – Non-experimental
Description of any data manipulation, modeling, or statistical analysis undertaken
This file contains a public use version of the data collected and analyzed for states in the DCM-F/RP demonstration in SY 2019-20, including both variables collected from the States and variables constructed for use in analysis. The file contains one observation for each of the districts in the analysis sample. Several types of edits were used to protect the confidentiality of respondents, including removing identifying information, rounding percentage variables to the nearest tenth, and rounding continuous variables representing numbers of schools, students, meals or dollars.
Description of any gaps in the data or other limiting factors
Specific certification data elements were unavailable for some States or districts (namely, Iowa and Wisconsin did not provide data on reduced-price certifications). In addition, some districts—including notable subsets in Indiana and Virginia—were excluded from the analysis sample due to incomplete or erroneous administrative data.
See the full Direct Certification with Medicaid for Free and Reduced-Price Meals (DCM-F/RP) Demonstration, SY 2019-20 report [https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/usda-dcm-frp-demonstration] for a detailed explanation of the study’s limitations.
Outcome measurement methods and equipment used
The effects of DCM-F/RP on certification, participation, and Federal reimbursement outcomes were estimated by comparing measures in the baseline year to the same measure in SY 2019–2020. A fixed effects model was used to control for changes in outcomes between years and to improve the precision of the estimates.