Federal budget reconciliation law H.R. 1, signed in 2025, tightened SNAP and Medicaid eligibility, shrinking the pool of Georgia children automatically certified for free and reduced-price school meals through direct certification. The Center for American Progress estimates more than 1.2 million Georgia students were eligible for the school meal program in the 2024-25 school year, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A pending Georgia bill, HB 947 (the Georgia SNAP Integrity Act of 2026), would add state-level verification requirements including income, residency, and citizenship checks within 30 days of application, as recorded by LegiPlex. That combination of federal and state actions could reduce participation in a state where 64 percent of students were free or reduced-price eligible in FY 2024, according to the Georgia House Budget and Research Office.
The Georgia House Budget and Research Office reported that out of roughly 1,750,516 students with school meal access in FY 2024, approximately 990,187 were free lunch eligible and 91,992 were reduced-price eligible. The same agency noted that the Georgia Department of Education fully implemented direct certification using Medicaid income in FY 2024, which increased the number of eligible students by 4 percent. Across 2,270 Georgia public schools serving 1,741,369 students, 64 percent are certified free or reduced-price, according to PantryPath. The data also shows that 862 schools, or 39 percent of National School Lunch Program participants, operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 25.1 percent of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that over 4 million people in the U.S. have been cut from SNAP since H.R. 1 took effect, with nearly one million of those being children, according to CAP analyst DeMio. The same outlet reported that CAP estimates a family that loses SNAP eligibility and has two children would need to come up with about $1,134 per year to pay for school lunches, based on 2025-26 meal prices. The Georgia Department of Education stated it had not yet received federal guidance on H.R. 1 and encouraged households to apply for free and reduced-price meal benefits through their local School Nutrition Program, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Comparative precedent
While Georgia faces the prospect of tighter eligibility, several other states have moved in the opposite direction. California became the first state to implement universal free school meals for all public school students in 2022-2023, according to the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. Over four years, approximately 3.5 billion meals have been served, serving nearly 6 million students, with the state expected to serve nearly 1 billion meals in the 2026 school year alone.
Hawaii's Act 139, signed into law in 2025, expanded free school meal eligibility to households at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level starting in the 2026-27 school year, adding nearly 12,000 additional students, according to the Hawaii State Department of Education. The first phase in 2025-26 eliminated meal charges for students qualifying for reduced-price meals under federal guidelines. Michigan's School Meals Program, in place since 2024, saw a 37 percent increase in students receiving breakfast and a 32 percent increase in lunch between the 2022-23 and 2025-26 school years, according to MLive. Legislation introduced in 2025 would permanently codify free meals for all 1.4 million K-12 students at a cost of over $200 million annually.
At the federal level, proposals in early 2025 sought to raise the Community Eligibility Provision threshold from 25 percent to 60 percent identified student percentage and require stringent income verification documentation, according to WUSF Public Media. The Food Research and Action Center estimated those changes would reduce federal school meal reimbursement costs by approximately $9 billion and cause many students to lose access. In Florida alone, an estimated 1 million children and over 1,000 schools could have lost CEP access. In the 2025-2026 school year, 17 states and the District of Columbia decreased the total number of schools participating in CEP compared to the prior year, according to FRAC. CEP growth slowed to its lowest rate in the program's history, with 55,362 schools participating nationally, an increase of only 1,128 schools, or 2.1 percent.
Research evidence
The Food Research and Action Center's 2026 CEP report found that SNAP cuts under H.R. 1 have already caused millions to lose nutrition benefits, threatening schools' ability to qualify for and sustain CEP participation. The report identifies declining identified student percentages as a compounding factor: as fewer children are directly certified through SNAP, schools' identified student percentages drop, reducing federal reimbursement and making CEP financially unsustainable for some schools. The report notes that CEP growth in 2025-2026 was the lowest in the program's history.
The School Nutrition Association's 2026 Position Paper states that upcoming changes to SNAP and Medicaid under H.R. 1 will cut the number of children automatically certified for free and reduced-price school meals, forcing schools off CEP. The association calls for legislation preserving current CEP rules including the 25 percent ISP threshold and the 1.6 multiplier, and urges passage of S. 3281 to repeal H.R. 1's SNAP provisions. The association also notes that federal meal applications only collect income data without exceptions for families with high living or emergency expenses.
The Georgia House Budget and Research Office's 2024 policy brief documented that direct certification using Medicaid income, fully implemented in FY 2024, increased the number of free and reduced-price eligible students by 4 percent. The brief also notes that the USDA reimbursement rate and the percentage of eligible students directly impact how districts set prices for paying students, and that districts must balance federal reimbursement, operating costs, and charges to paying students.
A 2023 Georgia bill (HB 510) that would have provided free school meals to all students passed both chambers of the state legislature but was vetoed by the governor, according to FoodCorps. Despite this, advocates continued pursuing expansion through HB 60 (Healthy Start Act) in 2025, which would cover the cost of reduced-price meals under existing federal guidelines. The Georgia General Assembly records show that HB 60 and HB 696, both introduced in 2025 to expand school meal access, each stalled at Second Readers and had not advanced as of the 2025-2026 session. Georgia Code also makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly provide false information on school meal eligibility forms, a provision that predates the current debate.