Project Summary
This project will inform Colorado’s efforts to increase college attainment by supporting students’ needs for food and related human services. Many college students struggle with food insecurity, and evidence increasingly suggests that food insecurity can act as a barrier to postsecondary success. Colorado state agencies and postsecondary institutions are looking for ways to expand student participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to ensure that students receive nutritional support, and to advance equity in postsecondary education.
Using linked administrative data, researchers will conduct four studies to inform Colorado’s decision making:
- A quantitative description of current and historical rates of SNAP eligibility and participation among college students, and variation in SNAP participation across institutions and student characteristics. This will include analyses of the share of students who are eligible for SNAP because they receive TANF benefits and the rate of SNAP participation among those students.
- A quantitative analysis of the relationship between SNAP participation and student outcomes, using quasi-experimental methods to compare academic outcomes for SNAP participants to SNAP-eligible non-participants. Having a rich array of baseline measures on participants and eligible non-participants, including those from students’ college applications, is critical to appropriately implement our quasi-experimental approach.
- A quantitative simulation of how SNAP participation and student outcomes might change under four different approaches to expanding SNAP participation.
- A mixed-methods description of the ways in which postsecondary institutions are implementing basic needs services to increase SNAP participation, and an exploration of which practices are associated with high rates of SNAP take-up among eligible students.
This project builds on an earlier phase of this work.
Data Partners
- Colorado Department of Higher Education
- Colorado Department of Human Services – Office of Economic Security
Status
In Progress