Does the provision of universal free school meals improve school attendance?

Abstract

We examine the effects of universal free school meal (UFSM) policies on school attendance and health-related absences. We leverage UFSM implementation in Scotland where all pupils in the first three grades of primary schools became automatically entitled to claim free meals, regardless of their households’ financial circumstances. We estimate a difference-in-differences model with variation in school-level exposure to the policy and find that, in spite of a large increase in take-up rates, attendance did not improve. Using an alternative exposure measure that includes those pupils switching from paid to free school meals, we find small positive and negative effects on attendance and health-related absences respectively. These findings would suggest the presence of a channel whereby financial savings by families encourage attendance, but these effects are too small to be considered economically meaningful.