IDENTIFYING PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS

The ACS collects information about school attendance: whether the student has been attending school within the last 3 months, whether the school is public or private, and the grade attended. The ACS also collects information about each person’s age. Hence for a given geographic area, it is possible to obtain estimates for students who live in that area, attend public school, and are in approximately the appropriate grade range. In defining public school students, the panel adapted the definitions used by the Census Bureau to support the research efforts of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Namely, a “student” is a person with the following responses² to the ACS questions shown in Boxes B-1, B-2, and B-3³:

• yes, attended public school or public college at some time during the past 3 months,
• highest degree or level of school completed reported as “No schooling” or “Nursery or preschool through 12 grades,” and
• age reported to be less than 20 years old.⁴

DEFINING INCOME

According to the Eligibility Manual for School Meals, U.S. Department of Agriculture/Food and Nutrition Service (2011:40)

households must report current income on a free and reduced price application. Current income means income received by the household for the current month, the amount projected for the first month for which the application is filled out, or for the month prior to application. If this income is higher or lower than usual and does not fairly represent the