ECIN Replication Package for "Universal Free Meals and School Suspensions"

We
evaluate whether providing
free meals to all students causes
changes in out-of-school suspensions for schools adopting those policies in the United States. The study builds
on earlier work that has shown null effects of universal free meals on suspensions.
Specifically, this study analyzes an updated dataset and incorporates recent
methods designed to estimate program effects when program adoption is staggered
over time. We adopt a difference-in-differences research design and exploit the
time variation in adopting provisions that permit free meals to be provided to
all enrolled students (i.e., Provisions 2 and 3 of the National School Lunch
Act, and the Community Eligibility Provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids
Act). Adopting universal meals decreases suspensions by approximately ten
percent for elementary students and six percent for middle and high school
students. These impacts are more pronounced in schools with fewer students
eligible for free and reduced-price meals in preadoption periods. We show that
differences in our conclusions from those reported previously arise primarily
out of methods that better account for staggered program adoption as opposed to
the updated dataset. This replication package provides data and code accompanying the article.