BEYOND THE NUMBERS
With School Year Starting, Children’s Participation in SNAP Continues Rapid Decline
As children head back to school, it’s important to remember the role SNAP plays in supporting their healthy development. SNAP helps ensure that children have enough food and improves their health and educational outcomes. But there’s been a sharp drop in the number of children receiving SNAP across the country in the aftermath of the harmful 2025 Republican reconciliation law.
We estimate that nationwide, well over 1.5 million children likely have lost SNAP since President Trump signed the law. This poses a significant risk to the well-being of children in low-income families; many are losing access to SNAP at the same time their families are juggling rising back-to-school expenses, such as new backpacks, notebooks, and other school supplies.
In the 25 states that have publicly available data or have shared unpublished data, 1.2 million fewer children are receiving SNAP (about a 13 percent decline) since July 2025, when the reconciliation law took effect. (See table.)
These states compose about 60 percent of all SNAP participants. Children make up close to half of the people who have lost SNAP in these 25 states overall and a significant share in every one of those states. In Minnesota, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Texas, more than half of the people losing SNAP are children.
Change in Child SNAP Participation Since Enactment of Harmful Republican Reconciliation Law in July 2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Most Recent Month of Data | Change in Total Participation | Change in Child Participation | |||
| Count | Percent | Count | Percent | Share of State’s Total Participation Change | ||
| Alabama | May 2026 | -81,838 | -11% | -23,324 | -7% | 29% |
| Arizona | July 2026 | -406,316 | -45% | -166,773 | -45% | 41% |
| Arkansas | July 2026 | -24,813 | -10% | -8,687 | -9% | 35% |
| California | May 2026 | -333,062 | -6% | -156,440 | -9% | 47% |
| Colorado | June 2026 | -33,681 | -5% | -12,598 | -5% | 37% |
| Connecticut | June 2026 | -56,044 | -16% | -15,668 | -14% | 28% |
| Georgia | June 2026 | -133,135 | -9% | -52,242 | -8% | 39% |
| Idaho | June 2026 | -9,624 | -7% | -4,756 | -9% | 49% |
| Kansas | July 2026 | -32,158 | -17% | -14,119 | -17% | 44% |
| Louisiana | June 2026 | -170,227 | -21% | -82,064 | -23% | 48% |
| Maine | July 2026 | -20,019 | -12% | -6,133 | -12% | 31% |
| Maryland | July 2026 | -33,869 | -5% | -16,418 | -6% | 48% |
| Massachusetts | June 2026 | -179,848 | -17% | -63,763 | -19% | 35% |
| Michigan | June 2026 | -138,337 | -10% | -46,366 | -9% | 34% |
| Minnesota | May 2026 | -17,077 | -4% | -13,082 | -7% | 77% |
| Missouri | July 2026 | -39,707 | -6% | -15,860 | -6% | 40% |
| Montana | June 2026 | -6,583 | -8% | -2,598 | -8% | 39% |
| New Hampshire | June 2026 | -2,454 | -3% | -945 | -4% | 39% |
| New Jersey | June 2026 | -53,523 | -7% | -21,339 | -6% | 40% |
| New Mexico | June 2026 | -23,798 | -5% | -12,372 | -7% | 52% |
| Ohio* | May 2026 | -107,573 | -8% | -50,477 | -9% | 47% |
| Pennsylvania | July 2026 | -234,275 | -12% | -68,935 | -10% | 29% |
| South Dakota | July 2026 | -4,820 | -6% | -2,724 | -8% | 57% |
| Texas | July 2026 | -651,954 | -19% | -344,147 | -20% | 53% |
| Vermont | March 2026 | -4,547 | -7% | -1,544 | -8% | 34% |
| Total | - | -2,799,282 | -12% | -1,203,374 | -13% | 43% |
*Ohio’s SNAP program defines children as individuals receiving SNAP benefits who are under 22 and live with a parent. Notes: States shown are those that publicly report SNAP participation data for children, or do not currently publish participation data publicly but have shared unpublished data. Kentucky also provides child participation data but is omitted due to data quality concerns. Minnesota’s published state data on total participation are not comparable to its data on children because the former includes recipients of state-funded benefits; we therefore calculated shares in this table using USDA program data on total participation in Minnesota. Source: CBPP calculations of SNAP state agency child participation data as of September 2, 2026 | ||||||
It’s very unlikely that reduced need is driving the decline in SNAP participation. Nationally, unemployment has remained steady, real wages declined year-over-year in July 2026, food insecurity remained high in 2025, and grocery costs continue to rise. Rather, the sharp decline likely reflects, in part, the reconciliation law’s shift of large SNAP benefit costs to states.
The size of the cost shift is based on states’ payment error rates, which incentivizes states to reduce error rates quickly and cut program costs, even if it means denying benefits to eligible households — including households with children. States (many of which already have tight budgets) are struggling to keep up with the law’s requirements and may have to restrict access further or possibly withdraw from SNAP altogether.
While cutting SNAP eligibility for children was not a stated target of the Republican reconciliation law’s proponents, the cost shift and resulting access barriers are causing serious food assistance losses for children in households with low incomes.
Studies demonstrate that SNAP has important benefits for children:
- SNAP helps families afford an adequate diet while meeting other basic needs. About 1 in 5 U.S. children participate in SNAP each month; close to 40 percent of SNAP households include children. Without SNAP, many low-income families, including those with children, must face the difficult choice of which essential needs to meet. In 2024, nearly 20 percent of food-insecure households (meaning they had limited or uncertain access to adequate food) included children. Last year, the Department of Agriculture ended its annual survey on food security after 30 years, which will make it harder to measure the impacts of the reconciliation law’s SNAP cuts and rising food costs.
- SNAP reduces food insecurity and its harmful effects on children. Research shows that food insecurity has a range of adverse physical, cognitive, and social effects on children's development. SNAP reduces food insecurity among children by roughly one-third and also lifts people out of poverty. Children with early exposure to SNAP do better as adults across a range of socioeconomic outcomes, including lower risk of chronic illness.
- SNAP helps children do better in school. SNAP is associated with better math and reading scores, fewer school days missed due to illness, and increased chances of graduating from high school.
Studies also demonstrate the cost of losing SNAP:
- Losing SNAP can harm children. Children who lose some or all of their SNAP benefits are more likely to have poor health and to be food insecure compared to children in families that maintain benefits. Loss of SNAP also makes it harder for children in families with low incomes to qualify for other food assistance, such as the WIC nutrition program and free school meals (see below).
- Children’s loss of SNAP will have harmful ripple effects across the community. Some schools may have to stop providing free meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision. Schools’ eligibility for this option and their federal reimbursement both depend on how many enrolled students participate in programs like SNAP.
It’s also important to note that SNAP participation is dropping even before states must begin paying for the additional costs incurred from the reconciliation law. This suggests that even more children will likely lose SNAP during the current school year and risk not having enough food to eat.
Congress needs to address this unfolding hunger crisis before it becomes even worse, by strengthening the Farm Bill and moving it forward without further SNAP cuts.
