Published on
20/05/2026 - 17:01 GMT+2
Universal free school meals can help improve student behaviour, according to a new study.
Researchers in the United States and South Korea have analysed data of 95,000 schools in the US, using information collected by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights between the 2011–2012 and 2017–2018 academic years.
The study found that schools adopting universal free meal programmes saw out-of-school suspensions fall by around 10% among primary school pupils and by 6% among secondary school students.
