The change would also affect children’s access to school meals because children who live in households that receive food stamps are automatically eligible for free breakfast and lunch at school.
Ms. Neuberger said such automatic eligibility has helped simplify nutritional support for low-income children and their schools.
The department estimates that as many as 982,000 children would no longer be automatically eligible for free school meals, almost double the initial estimate. About 45 percent of those children would still be eligible for free meals but they would have to apply, said Jonathan Butcher, senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
States have relied on automatic eligibility because “they know too many eligible children fall through the cracks when parents have to fill out and submit a paper application,” Lisa Davis, vice president of No Kid Hungry, said.
“Parents may not understand it. The paperwork may not make it home or it may not make it back to school. Vulnerable families can fall through the cracks,” Ms. Davis said. “There is no guarantee that they will end up re-enrolled.”
Mr. Butcher said such concerns are overstated.
“If this is a family where the choice is between handling paperwork and not eating during the day, I would think that the family would make it a priority to make sure that the child is taken care of. We’re talking about something that is the difference between going hungry or not,” he said.
Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, and Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, recently proposed legislation that would provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all school children. It would also provide summer meals to all children.
“When our children have empty stomachs, they cannot learn,” Ms. Omar said. “They have more trouble concentrating. They are more likely to be absent or tardy.”