Dive Brief:

• A growing number of districts have taken to serving all students breakfast in the classroom, a move that promotes equity and doesn't single out students eligible for free and reduced lunch.  
• While the number of students served breakfast in the classroom has doubled over the past 20 years, some parents and teachers are arguing that the meal time is taking away from learning. Some parents are also taking offense at what they see as an assumption that they can't or aren't serving their children breakfast.
• In Los Angeles, families in wealthier districts organized against the required breakfast time, gaining the option for districts with less than 20% of their populations falling below the poverty line to opt out. 

Dive Insight:

While meal times may cut into traditional learning time, breakfast can also serve other purposes. If teachers use the eating period to build relationships, have students journal, or even read a book out loud, not all is lost. There are other formative parts of school that sometimes get lost when too narrow a focus is applied to instruction time. 

In a 2013-14 survey conducted by the Food Research and Action Center, 52 of the 62 districts queried nationwide served breakfast to all students regardless of their family's economic status.