Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Eligibility

Share of K-12 students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a proxy for economic disadvantage, per school, district, and state, 2013-2026.

Source: Georgia Insights (GaDOE) — Free and Reduced Price Meal Eligibility
Year coverage: 2013–2026
Updated: annual
Version: 1.0.0
Schema hash: 3a1e4394f332

Detail levels available

StateDistrictSchool · default

Overview

Georgia Insights (GaDOE) Free and Reduced Price Meal Eligibility — the share of K-12 enrolled students eligible for Free or Reduced-price Lunch (FRL) under the USDA National School Lunch Program, for every Georgia public school, district/system, and the state, fiscal years 2013-2026. A widely used proxy for student economic disadvantage. Eligibility is income-based per the USDA Federal Income Eligibility Guidelines: free meals at or below 130% of the federal poverty level, reduced-price between 130% and 185%; the combined FRL rate counts students up to the 185% threshold. This is the broad income/application-based eligibility measure — the automatic categorical-eligibility SUBSET (students certified without an application via SNAP/TANF/foster/homeless/migrant/Medicaid) is the companion topic direct_certification.

Row grain: One row per year, district_code, school_code, reporting_status.

Key metric

free_reduced_lunch_rate — Free Reduced Lunch Rate (proportion)

The single headline value most answers want.

JSON schema →Data contract (YAML) →

Variables

Every column in the fact table. The code is the exact field name the API returns.

Column	Type	Unit	Range	Null?	Description
`year`Year	integer	—	—	no	Georgia fiscal year = ending calendar year of the school year (2024 = the 2023-2024 school year; Georgia FY ends June 30). Sourced from the bronze filename, cross-checked against each file's preamble. Full description▾ Georgia fiscal year = ending calendar year of the school year (2024 = the 2023-2024 school year; Georgia FY ends June 30). Sourced from the bronze filename, cross-checked against each file's preamble.
`district_code`District Code	string	—	—	yes	GaDOE district/system code (FK to districts dimension). Standard county/city systems are 3-digit zero-padded codes; state-specialty and charter systems use 7-digit codes. NULL for state-level rows. Full description▾ GaDOE district/system code (FK to districts dimension). Standard county/city systems are 3-digit zero-padded codes; state-specialty and charter systems use 7-digit codes. NULL for state-level rows. Joins districts; adds its label columns.
`school_code`School Code	string	—	—	yes	4-digit GaDOE school code, extracted from the bronze composite `School ID - School Name` column (FK to schools dimension, composite with district_code — the same school_code can appear in multiple districts). NULL for district- and state-level rows. Full description▾ 4-digit GaDOE school code, extracted from the bronze composite `School ID - School Name` column (FK to schools dimension, composite with district_code — the same school_code can appear in multiple districts). NULL for district- and state-level rows. Joins schools; adds its label columns.
`reporting_status`Reporting Status	string	—	—	yes	Why the rate is present or NULL: reported, privacy-suppressed (rate >95% or <5%), or not participating. Full description▾ Why `free_reduced_lunch_rate` is present or NULL. `reported` — bronze carried a numeric rate; `suppressed_privacy_band` — bronze `*` (the true rate is greater than 95% or less than 5%, hidden by the source; dual-ended, so a suppressed entity cannot be inferred to sit at either end); `not_participating` — bronze `#` or `NA` (entity does not participate in the FRL program; under the Community Eligibility Provision many high-poverty schools fall here because meals are universal rather than means-tested, so it does NOT imply low poverty). Never NULL in FY2013-FY2026 bronze (every rate cell carries a value or a marker — enforced by a quality check); a NULL would mean a genuinely missing bronze cell. 3 allowed values▾ `not_participating` `reported` `suppressed_privacy_band`
`free_reduced_lunch_rate`Free Reduced Lunch Rate	number	proportion	—	yes	Share of K-12 students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch on a 0-1 scale; NULL means suppressed or not participating (see reporting_status). Full description▾ Share of K-12 enrolled students eligible for Free or Reduced-price Lunch (0-1 decimal scale; bronze `KK-12 % FRL` divided by 100). NULL when the source suppressed the rate (`*`) or the entity does not participate (`#`/`NA`) — see `reporting_status` for which. Every published rate lies within the source's [0.05, 0.95] publication band.

Filters

Query parameters the fact endpoint accepts. Comma-separated values are OR within a parameter; multiple parameters AND together.

Parameter	Kind	Allowed values	Notes
`year`	year_exact	any value	—
`year_min`	year_range	any value	—
`year_max`	year_range	any value	—
`detail`	detail	`districtsschoolsstates`	enum-enforced, default: schools
`district_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`school_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`reporting_status`	categorical	`not_participatingreportedsuppressed_privacy_band`	multi-value, enum-enforced, pick one
`district_type`	dimension_attribute	7 allowed values▾ `commission_charter` `resa` `standard` `state_agency` `state_charter` `state_school` `state_special`	multi-value, enum-enforced

Example requests

Run these against the base URL — they return live data.

All rows (first page), schools level

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/free_reduced_lunch"

schools data for 2026

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/free_reduced_lunch?year=2026"

Filtered to reporting_status = not_participating for 2026

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/free_reduced_lunch?year=2026&reporting_status=not_participating"

One district (code 601), 2026

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/free_reduced_lunch?district_code=601&year=2026&detail=districts"

Download 2026 as CSV

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/free_reduced_lunch?year=2026&format=csv"

Notes & limitations

NULL handling

Suppressed cells (too few students to report) are NULL, never zero.
Zero is a real, reported value.

Limitations

free_reduced_lunch_rate is NULL whenever the source did not publish a numeric rate; the reporting_status column records WHY. Bronze `*` (reporting_status='suppressed_privacy_band') is a dual-ended PRIVACY suppression — it means the rate was greater than 95% or less than 5%, so a suppressed entity cannot be inferred to be at either the high or the low end. Consequently, every published (non-null) rate falls within the [0.05, 0.95] band. Bronze `#` (and the rare `NA`, FY2016 only) (reporting_status='not_participating') means the entity does not participate in the FRL program at all — under the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), many high-poverty schools show `#` because meals are universal rather than means-tested, so a `#` does NOT imply low poverty. State rows come exclusively from the District CSV's `State-Wide Total` row; School files carry no state aggregate. FY2025-FY2026 show substantially elevated `*` suppression (expanded CEP coverage). This is the broad income-based FRL eligibility measure (free <=130% FPL, reduced 130-185%); the automatic categorical subset is the companion direct_certification topic.