Four Corner States Percent of Public School Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch, by County (2004, 2018-2019)
Dublin Core
Title
Four Corner States Percent of Public School Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch, by County (2004, 2018-2019)
Subject
This map illustrates the percent of public school students who were eligible to receive either free or reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program in each county within the four corner states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) in 2007 or the 2017-2018 academic year.
Description
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act is a United States federal law that created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) after being signed into law by President Harry S. Truman in 1946.[1] The NSLP’s purpose is to provide low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools- a much needed program due to the fact that over 1 in 5 children in the United States were living in food-insecure households in 2010.[2,3] To qualify for free meals at school, low-income children must live in households with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty level or with those receiving SNAP or TANF. Children with family incomes between 130 and 185 percent of the poverty line qualify for reduced-price meals.[3]
This map illustrates the percent of public school students in each county who were eligible for either free or reduced-price lunch within the four corner states. This is significantly higher than the percent of female householders in Utah. Out of 139 counties, the mean percent of percent of public school students in each county who were eligible for either free or reduced-price lunch was 0.53 percent with a minimum of 0.09 percent and a maximum of 100 percent in McKinley County, New Mexico. The four counties with some of the higher percentages were in Arizona (Navajo and Apache Counties) and New Mexico (McKinley and Cibola Counties). These data are very similar to the percent of households with female householders with a family and no husband present. The same four counties had above 75 percent of students in the county who were eligible for either free or reduced-price lunches- although they were not the highest four counties.
One large limitation was the lack of current data indicating participation, eligibility, or utilizations rates in Arizona at the county level. Furthermore, Arizona county boundaries rarely match up with county boundaries which limits the feasibility and accuracy of using the more current data available at the school district or individual school level. Due to this, Arizona state data utilized in this map is from 2007- the most current year with county level eligibility data reported by the state. Another large limiting factor in the data were the lack of utilization, participation, utilization, etc. data relating to free or reduced-price lunch at levels smaller than the state level.
This map illustrates the percent of public school students in each county who were eligible for either free or reduced-price lunch within the four corner states. This is significantly higher than the percent of female householders in Utah. Out of 139 counties, the mean percent of percent of public school students in each county who were eligible for either free or reduced-price lunch was 0.53 percent with a minimum of 0.09 percent and a maximum of 100 percent in McKinley County, New Mexico. The four counties with some of the higher percentages were in Arizona (Navajo and Apache Counties) and New Mexico (McKinley and Cibola Counties). These data are very similar to the percent of households with female householders with a family and no husband present. The same four counties had above 75 percent of students in the county who were eligible for either free or reduced-price lunches- although they were not the highest four counties.
One large limitation was the lack of current data indicating participation, eligibility, or utilizations rates in Arizona at the county level. Furthermore, Arizona county boundaries rarely match up with county boundaries which limits the feasibility and accuracy of using the more current data available at the school district or individual school level. Due to this, Arizona state data utilized in this map is from 2007- the most current year with county level eligibility data reported by the state. Another large limiting factor in the data were the lack of utilization, participation, utilization, etc. data relating to free or reduced-price lunch at levels smaller than the state level.
Creator
Maggie Plessinger
Source
[1] Hynd E. National School Lunch Act. The Congress Project. Published December 1, 2016. Accessed December 15, 2020. https://www.thecongressproject.com/national-school-lunch-act-1946
[2] Glavin C. National School Lunch Act. K12 Academics. Published October 19, 2016. Accessed December 15, 2020. https://www.k12academics.com/Federal%20Education%20Legislation/national-school-lunch-act
[3] Feeding America. National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Feedingamerica.org. Published 2020. https://www.feedingamerica.org/take-action/advocate/federal-hunger-relief-programs/national-school-lunch-program
County Subdivisions: TIGER/Line Shapefiles from the US Census Bureau, at census.gov, downloaded in December 2020, data from 141 counties
Free or Reduced Lunch Eligibility Data [Colorado, New Mexico, Utah]: Student eligibility data downloaded from the Elementary/Secondary Information System on the National Center for Education Statistics website, downloaded in December 2020, data from 124 counties
Free or Reduced Lunch Data [Arizona]: Percent students approved data downloaded from the KIDSCOUNT data center website, downloaded in December 2020, data from 15 counties
[2] Glavin C. National School Lunch Act. K12 Academics. Published October 19, 2016. Accessed December 15, 2020. https://www.k12academics.com/Federal%20Education%20Legislation/national-school-lunch-act
[3] Feeding America. National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Feedingamerica.org. Published 2020. https://www.feedingamerica.org/take-action/advocate/federal-hunger-relief-programs/national-school-lunch-program
County Subdivisions: TIGER/Line Shapefiles from the US Census Bureau, at census.gov, downloaded in December 2020, data from 141 counties
Free or Reduced Lunch Eligibility Data [Colorado, New Mexico, Utah]: Student eligibility data downloaded from the Elementary/Secondary Information System on the National Center for Education Statistics website, downloaded in December 2020, data from 124 counties
Free or Reduced Lunch Data [Arizona]: Percent students approved data downloaded from the KIDSCOUNT data center website, downloaded in December 2020, data from 15 counties
Publisher
Website maintained by Chantel Sloan, Associate Professor in the Public Health Department at Brigham Young University.
Date
County subdivision boundaries data from 2018. Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah Free or Reduced-price Lunch data from 2017-2018. Arizona Free or Reduced-price Lunch data from 2007.
Contributor
Maggie Plessinger
Rights
Free or Reduced Lunch Eligibility Data [Colorado, New Mexico, Utah]: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey'', 2017-18 v.1a, 2018-19 v.1a; "Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey Geographic Data (EDGE)", 2017-18 v.1a, 2018-19 v.1a.
Free or Reduced Lunch Eligibility Data [Arizona]: The Annie E. Casey Foundation, KIDS COUNT Data Center, https://datacenter.kidscount.org.
ArcGIS Pro: (Version 2.6.1) Esri Inc.https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-pro/
Free or Reduced Lunch Eligibility Data [Arizona]: The Annie E. Casey Foundation, KIDS COUNT Data Center, https://datacenter.kidscount.org.
ArcGIS Pro: (Version 2.6.1) Esri Inc.https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-pro/
Relation
N/A
Format
PDF
Language
English
Coverage
Four Corners region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) subdivided by county. The map scale is 1:6,645,583.
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Map file generated using ArcGIS Pro 2.6.1
Files
Reference
Four Corner States Percent of Public School Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch, by County (2004, 2018-2019), Maggie Plessinger, Website maintained by Chantel Sloan, Associate Professor in the Public Health Department at Brigham Young University., County subdivision boundaries data from 2018. Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah Free or Reduced-price Lunch data from 2017-2018. Arizona Free or Reduced-price Lunch data from 2007.