WASHINGTON — Utah ranks third worst in the nation in providing school breakfast to low-income children, with only about one in four of them receiving it, a new study says.

Specifically, only 27.6 percent of Utah's low-income students — defined as those who receive free or reduced-price school lunch — also received school breakfast during the past school year, according to a study by the Food Research and Action Center.

That is a mere two-thirds of the national average of 42.3 percent. The only states that did worse are New Jersey (24.4 percent) and Wisconsin (23.8 percent).

On the other end of the spectrum, the states that are most effective in delivering school breakfast to their low-income children are Oregon (55.4 percent), West Virginia (54.8 percent) and Mississippi (54.4 percent).

"We constantly try to promote school breakfast," said Laura Oscarson-Wilde, director of child nutrition programs at the State Office of Education. "But there is a real bias with parents and school administrators that breakfast is not a school responsibility."

She adds, "It is a family responsibility — but they often don't realize how important nutrition is to education. . . . It's hard to convince people to try it out. Once they do, they usually like it."

The FRAC report says studies show many kids, especially those who are poor, don't get breakfast at home. It says missing breakfast impairs learning ability, increases behavioral problems and increases absences due to illness.

While Utah ranks near the bottom of the states, data in the study showed that it made some modest improvement during the past year.

More low-income children received school breakfast last year: 33,891 in 2002-03 compared to 30,868 in 2001-02.

A total of 40,817 Utah students received school breakfast last year — 17 percent of them paid full price for it, and 83 percent received it free or at reduced price because they are from low-income families.

However, the number of schools participating in the school breakfast program statewide dropped from 562 to 536, or 66 percent of all schools. That was a 4 percent drop, the third-biggest drop among the states.

"That's a pretty significant drop," said Nicole Woo, principal author of the FRAC study. "In Utah, 44 percent of schools that have school lunch do not offer breakfast. There is probably a significant number of low-income students and others who could benefit from it there."

Woo noted Utah has a law requiring nonparticipating schools to report every three years about why they opt out of the program, and it requires school boards to reconsider nonparticipation every three years.