Nationally, Breakfast After the Bell and other alternative service models help address barriers to school breakfast, increase student access to breakfast, improve the classroom learning environment, and alleviate student hunger. Research also shows that serving breakfast as part of the school day is a powerful tool for reducing chronic absenteeism, with one study indicating that absenteeism may decrease by an average of 6 percentage points after schools adopt Breakfast After the Bell.

State funding was first appropriated in FY2016 and Virginia’s Breakfast After the Bell initiative has been a critical component of the ALL In Virginia campaign and has supported a 26 percent reduction in chronic absenteeism statewide over the past two school years. Since the 2015-2016 school year, Breakfast After the Bell and alternative service models have been widely accepted and implemented in Virginia as best practice. School breakfast has been linked to student success and serving breakfast after the bell is anecdotally an effective approach in Virginia, most notably in this report with schools having the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

As required by Chapter 725 of the 2025 Acts of Assembly, the Virginia Department of Education (the Department) collected data from schools receiving funding for alternative breakfast service models in program year 2024-2025.