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A report on students who qualify for free or reduced-cost school lunches at Monday's Board Of Education meeting underscored a growing poverty rate in Lansing.  Lansing's residents with income below the poverty level is 15.2%, making the town better off than the state average of 18.9%.  According to City-Data.com as many as 10% of Lansing children are below the poverty level.  But a look at ten years of school lunch data shows a trend where Lansing is facing more poverty as the school population rises.

"There are some very obvious trends here," Data Coordinator Angie Russell told school board members. "First and foremost, as a district your free lunch numbers have going up 85%.  Your reduced lunch number has decreased.  You have a 7% enrollment change, but at the same time you have a 10% increase in your free and reduced lunch.  You can see your free and reduced lunch numbers have clearly gone up, yet your enrollment has decreased."

The analysis, which looks at school years from 2007-08 through 2017-18, shows that there has been some fluctuation from year to year, but district-wide data shows that more students are eligible for Free Lunch now than ten years ago, while fewer receive Reduced.  In the 2007-08 school year 144 students were eligible for free lunch.  That number has almost doubled with 267 students receiving Free Lunch in the 2017-18 school year.  Students paying a reduced lunch price has dropped from 59 students ten years ago to 39 today.

94% more high school students are eligible for free lunch than a decade ago even though enrollment is down 26%.  In the middle school the jump in free lunch eligibility is 56%, with a 17% reduction in those who can get reduced lunch.  In the elementary school there has been a 109% increase in free lunch recipients, with 199 students today versus 57 ten years ago.  Reduced lunch eligibility has gone down 48%, and enrollment is up 11%, currently at 462 students.

"That's a big deal," Russell said. "When your numbers are over 100% that's a 'hey look at me' number.  It looks like you have some increases that are probably going to head to the middle school."

Russell noted that better data that is collected today could benefit the district, because it will be eligible for more state aid.

71.4% of Lansing families below the poverty level are married couples. 10% of Lansing children live below the poverty level.  The state average is 20.4% of children.  Not graduating high school is a factor.

To be eligible for the free lunch program income must be below 130% of the federal poverty guideline.  Students are more likely to be eligible if they are homeless, a runaway, migrant, foster child, or other similar circumstances.

Board members feared that their data doesn't tell the full story because some families are embarrassed to identify themselves as below the poverty line, or choose not to identify their status for other reasons.  School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso noted that the official definition of poverty may not reflect all families who are struggling to make ends meet.

"It is important to note that this is a very low threshold," she said. "There is a level of poverty that isn't considered eligible.  So we try to make sure that supports are available."

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