In August 2020, then-governor Charlie Baker signed a law requiring every school where more than 60 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch to offer breakfast after the beginning of the instructional day, in a bid to boost student health and behavior.
But a new report by the Eos Foundation suggests schools are falling short of the legislation’s goal of feeding more students. In the state’s 953 high-poverty schools, only 48 percent of students were eating school breakfast in March 2025.
Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, executive director of Children’s HealthWatch, said providing breakfast improves food security, which impacts behavior. Children who skip breakfast are more likely to go to the nurse with a headache or stomachache or have trouble concentrating. “Particularly in lower-income communities, where you have lots of kids who are food insecure, the classroom can be a disruptive place,” Ettinger de Cuba said. “It’s not that they’re bad kids, it’s that their bodies aren’t getting what they need.”