Developing and Evaluating Methods for Using American Community Survey Data to Support the School Meals Programs Interim Report (2010) / Chapter Skim
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3 The American Community Survey and Other Data Sources
3 The American Community Survey and Other Data Sources
Pages 32-46
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From page 32... ...
The primary use of the FNS and NCES administrative data will be to assess bias in esti mates based on the ACS. One of the known reasons for potential bias in ACS-based estimates is that ACS measures annual income, whereas eligibility for school meals programs is based on monthly data.
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Program TIGER/School District X X Review Program Case Study School X X X X X X Districts SOURCE: Prepared by the panel.
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As discussed in detail in Chapter 5, the panel will consider whether the methodology used to prepare SAIPE estimates can be modified to derive the eligibility estimates needed for the school meals programs. This chapter provides an introduction to the SAIPE program.
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From page 35... ...
Finally, beginning in late 2010, the Census Bureau will release ACS 5-year period estimates for all geographic areas in Census Bureau databases, including block groups, census tracts, and small cities, towns, and school districts. The ACS data provide the opportunity for constructing estimates of students who are eligible for free meals, reduced-price meals, and full-price meals for the attendance areas of schools, groups of schools, and school districts.
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From page 36... ...
The ACS collects data on gross money income for household members ages 15 and older, so it is possible to compare a family's income with 130 percent and 185 percent of the applicable poverty guideline to determine its income eligibility status. However, the ACS income data pertain to the previous 12 months, whereas eligibility for the school meals programs is based on a current month's income.
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From page 37... ...
If ACS 5-year period estimates replaced usage-based percentages for a base year, the claiming percentages would be more out of date than under current practice for the base and future years. Statistical modeling and adjustment methods to ameliorate this problem are discussed in later chapters.2 ADMINISTRATIvE DATA FOR THE SCHOOL MEALS PROgRAMS FNS collects state-level counts related to the school meals programs on the Report of School Program Operations, Form FNS-10, which is completed by the relevant state agency.
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The CCD provides an official listing of public elementary and secondary schools and school districts in the nation, which is used to select samples for other NCES surveys and provides basic information and descriptive statistics on public elementary and secondary schools and schooling in general. The data, supplied by state education agency officials, include information that describes schools and school districts, including name, address, and phone number; information about students and staff, including demographic characteristics; and fiscal data, including revenues and current expenditures.
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From page 39... ...
Programs covered in SIPP include SNAP, NSLP, SBP, TANF, and many others. In addition, SIPP collects data on taxes, assets, liabilities, labor 3 Census Bureau tabulations from the ACS typically use the Office of Management and Budget statistical poverty levels which are similar to, but not exactly the same as, the Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines, which are used for school meals eligibility determination.
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From page 40... ...
Department of Education to distribute Title I basic and concentration grants directly to school districts on the basis of the most recent estimates of school-age children in poverty available from the Census Bureau. These estimates are produced by the Census Bureau's SAIPE program.
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From page 41... ...
The 2007 and 2008 estimates correspond with 2007-2008 school district boundaries, while the 2009 and 2010 estimates will correspond with 2009-2010 school district boundaries. Annual SAIPE estimates of related children ages 5-17 living in fami lies with income below the poverty line are used in allocating $14 bil lion to school districts for Title I of NCLB.5 As described in more detail below, the school district estimation process uses the estimated number of school-age children in poverty in a county from a statistical model and the estimated number of children in households below the poverty line based on federal income tax returns for each school district (or part of a district)
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7ACS direct estimates are estimates produced for a population group, time frame, and geography based only on ACS data and the ACS methods documented by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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grade Ranges of School Districts For each school district, SAIPE estimates pertain to all resident schoolage children (ages 5-17 inclusive) , whether enrolled in public or private school or not enrolled.
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For each school district piece, the tax-based child poverty rate is estimated, by using federal tax information obtained from the IRS, as the product of the county poverty rate for related children ages 5-17 and the ratio of the share of county "child tax–poor exemptions" to the share of "child tax exemptions" for the school district piece. For the 2008 school district estimates, the number of child tax exemptions and the number of child tax–poor exemptions were obtained from tax year 2007 IRS income tax data.
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From page 45... ...
The panel is developing a methodology that could produce estimates for school attendance areas of students eligible for free or reduced-price school meals for use in a new Provision 4 for federal reimbursement of meal costs. Because the Census Bureau does not maintain geographic data on school attendance-area boundaries, to obtain and evaluate such estimates under its proposed methodology, the panel will need to provide digitized school attendance-area boundaries of sufficient accuracy to the Census Bureau.
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From page 46... ...
If this project is successful, it may make it easier for school districts to obtain accurate digitized school attendance boundaries.
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