More than half of Fayette County’s public school students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, according to a national report released last month.
The 2014 Kids Count report, an annual assessment of children’s well-being nationwide released July 22, shows Fayette County trailing only Marion County when it comes to the percentage of public school students who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in 2014.
The report shows that 62.1 percent of public school students in Fayette County – 2,334 students – are eligible for the programs, trailing only Marion County, which had 68.2 percent of its public school students who were eligible. The state average was 48.7 percent.
It is the fifth consecutive year Fayette County has had more than 60 percent of its public school students participating in either the free or reduced-price lunch programs, according to data provided by Kids Count and the Indiana Youth Institute.
Further data shows that 53.9 percent of public school students county-wide were eligible for free lunches – 2,029 – while 8.1 percent – 305 students – were eligible for the reduced-price program, according to the Kids Count data. That percentage also ranked second-highest in the state, only behind Marion County.
The free and reduced-price lunch programs, instituted by the federal U.S. Department of Agriculture, determines whether students are eligible based on their families income.
For the 2013-14 school year, federal poverty guidelines meant that a household of five in Fayette County, with an annual income of $35,841, could be eligible for free school lunches. The annual income for a household of the same size, to be eligible for the reduced-price lunch program, would have been $51,005, according to the USDA.
The median household income for Fayette County in 2012, according to the latest data available, was $39,998, ranking it 83 out of 92 counties statewide for median household income.
Such stats for Fayette County correspond along with the percentage of children 18 and under who live in poverty, as more than a quarter of children in the county – 25.7 percent – lived in poverty in 2012, the latest statistics available from Kids Count.
Poverty, both in Fayette County and across the state, is something which needs addressed, according to Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute.
“While Indiana’s national ranking in child poverty has improved, the number of low-income children in the Hoosier state remains stubbornly high,” he said in a statement. “The reasons for poverty are many and complex, but national research confirms that academic attainment is a primary pathway out of poverty. Continued improvement in Indiana’s education outcomes would lead to greater long-term reductions in Indiana’s child poverty rate.”
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