2026 OCAP State of the Child Report

ECONOMIC WELL-BEING

K-12 Students Eligible to Receive Free and Reduced-Price School Lunch 2020-2021 to 2024-2025 Riverside County California

Unduplicated Pupil Count of Free/Reduced-Price Meals, English Learners, Homeless, and Foster Youth 2021-2022 to 2024-2025 ‰

317,644 317,017

320k

200k 400k 600k 800k 1M 1.2M 1.4M 1.6M 1.8M 2M 2.2M 2.4M 2.6M 2.8M 3M 3.2M 3.4M 3.6M 3.8M 4M

3,647,037

3,504,168 3,599,733

3,533,825

308,979

3,404,572

298,016

300k

286,604

280k

260k

240k

220k

298,998 298,146 310,630

275,492 284,807

200k

0

0

2020-21

2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25

2020-21

2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25

Percent of Children Under 18 Living in Poverty, Riverside County, California, United States 2014 to 2019 

Poverty Threshold:

0-99

100-199 200-299

300-399 400 or Higher

35%

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Riverside County

California

United States

California Department of Education (CDE) https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/sd/filessp.asp  https://www.kidsdata.org/topic/570/income-level/table ‘ California Department of Education (CDE) http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/sd/filescupc.asp ’ U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2019). 2019 HHS poverty guidelines. O ce of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evalua on. h ps://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty- economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines Note: Federal Poverty Level (FPL) categories describe how a child’s household income compares to the federal poverty guideline. In 2019, the federal poverty level for a household of three was $21,330 in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Children living in households below 100% of FPL (0–99%) are considered in poverty, meaning their household income falls below $21,330. Those between 100–199% FPL are above the poverty line but remain low-income and at elevated risk of material hardship, with household incomes ranging from $21,330 to $42,659. Children in households at 200–299% FPL fall within a moderate-income range, corresponding to incomes between $42,660 and $63,989. Those at 300–399% FPL are situated in middle-income households rela ve to federal benchmarks, with incomes between $63,990 and $85,319. Households at or above 400% FPL have incomes substan ally higher than the federal poverty guideline, meaning $85,320 or more. These percentage bands are widely used in child well-being research, federal repor ng, and program eligibility analyses to illustrate gradients of economic security.⁴

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