Correction
This story included an incorrect figure for the number of state students who are eligible for The National School Lunch Program. About 355,000 students, or 55.5 percent of the total enrollment, were eligible for the free/reduced lunch program last school year.

OKLAHOMA CITY — State Superintendent of Schools Sandy Garrett says it's easy to get caught up in numbers because student performance benchmarks, graduation rates and college admission scores matter more than ever.

But another number also grabs her attention — the number of Oklahoma school children who are eligible for The National School Lunch Program, which provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free meals to children whose parents qualify based on income guidelines.

About 640,000 Oklahoma students, or 55.5 percent, were eligible for the free and reduced-cost lunch program in the 2007-08 school year.

The number is higher in the Tulsa School District — 82.6 percent, according to the Education Department. This year, at McKinley Elementary School, eligibility is so high that all of the 480-plus students will be allowed to participate.

"Serving two meals a day makes us the largest restaurant in Oklahoma," Garrett said.

Serving the needs of those children is even more difficult when they get to the classroom, said Anne Roberts, executive director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.

"The free and reduced numbers are the canary in the minefield for me because they are an indication of poverty, and poverty does bad things to children," she said.

Some of those students may arrive at school with nutritional problems, have gaps in their vocabulary and life experiences and bring a lot of stress with them from home, some of which may be tied to their family's financial plight.

"We happen to be a state that benefits from high oil prices, but at the same time high oil prices are driving some of the poverty that is going on," Roberts said.

Garrett said state agencies, local educators and community civic and faith-based organizations are scrambling to fill the gap because poverty affects student performance.

At McKinley, principal Cassandra Funderburk said several churches organized an effort to provide a new school uniform for every child.

"It was awesome," Funderburk said of the back-to-school night when the uniforms were handed out.

This year her goal is to recruit a mentor or reading buddy for every child.

The Camp Fire USA Green Country Council in Tulsa is providing services, including after-school programming, to more than 25 schools. It expects to serve about 1,500 boys and girls, about 300 more than last year.

"When you look at what's going on with families who have plenty of resources, you see they are in quality after-school programming, get homework help, take dance lessons, that sort of thing," said Bobbie Henderson, executive director of the organization. "We try to make up that difference because those are opportunities that help children advance in their academic pursuits."

At McKinley, Funderburk said students may participate in a chess club, art club, music club or be involved in Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts or the Camp Fire program, all of which integrate math and reading into the activities. The after-school program also offers General Education Development classes and English-as-a-second-language classes to parents.

In Sand Springs, School Superintendent Lloyd Snow is partnering with the county health clinic and community groups to meet students' needs. The district got a boost recently from a $1.2 million state grant to continue a summer program targeting low-income families.

"We're hustling to partner with every source we can find to provide services," Snow said. "It's a very tough day-in, day-out effort by everyone and anyone in the schoolhouse."

Garrett said she commends schools for stepping up to the challenge at a time when state funding is flat and when transportation costs are up, along with what she calls Oklahoma's "misery index."

In her State of Education address in July, Garrett said Oklahoma is No. 1 in incarcerating women, has the highest rate of child abuse fatalities and the highest percentage of uninsured families and leads the nation in the prevalence of grandparents raising their school-age grandchildren.

"This isn't to make excuses, but it's to know what our challenges are," Garrett said.

Funderburk said first-year teachers' eyes were opened when school started.

"They don't always teach you about a child who is in a challenging situation at home, who is very frustrated and doesn't know how to handle situations we wouldn't know how to handle ourselves," she said.

But she said teachers are excited because "we have wonderful students and wonderful families who just are in challenging circumstances."

Free lunch rates