Four Outcomes to know from the Administrator School Breakfast Survey

The University of Iowa Public Policy Center and Team Nutrition program staff at the Iowa Department of Education surveyed K-12 school administrators in the state of Iowa on their perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs around school breakfast programs.  This report is part of a larger body of research looking at school breakfast in the sate of Iowa.

Here are four things to know from the report of findings:

1.     Timing was reported to be the biggest driver for low school breakfast participation in Iowa.  

Compared to other states, Iowa schools have some of the lowest participation rates for school breakfast in the country ranking 47^th out of 50 states.  One Administrator stated that timing is an issue because “it requires parents to get their children up for school earlier in the day.”  Other administrators echoed this theme and described the challenges to providing more time for breakfast or pushing it back to a later time during the morning.  Timing was related to other factors described as barriers, such as bus schedules, space, staffing, budget concerns, and student preferences. (p8, 13)

2.   The biggest concern administrators' express about improving school breakfast is bus schedules.

One-third of respondents selected the school’s bus schedule as a barrier to improving participation.  Especially in rural districts, many students ride a long distance on the bus before arriving at school resulting in limited time to eat breakfast before school starts. (p6-8)

3.   Administrators believe full stomachs and better academic performance are the top perceived benefits of a school breakfast program.

The vast majority of administrators agreed that school breakfast ensures that students will not be hungry (88.8%) and that students will perform better academically (84.2%).  Additionally, over half (62.5%) agreed that eating school breakfast means that students will have fewer behavioral problems. (p12)

4.     One possible solution to increase school breakfast participation would be to use alternative breakfast serving models.

The vast majority of schools represented in this survey serve breakfast in the traditional way (i.e., in the school cafeteria before the start of first period).  As administrators acknowledge this traditional model can be inconvenient.  However, alternative serving models, such as breakfast in the classroom or grab-and-go breakfast options, and providing students with more flexibility in breakfast choices, could help bolster breakfast participation across the state.  Schools show an interest in alternative serving models, but over a third of administrators did not feel like they had enough information about these models. (p15-16)

You access the full report here.