This report presents findings from the Access Evaluation, a study component that is designed to assess the potential impacts of direct certification-Medicaid (DC-M) on students' access to free school meals by conducting retrospective simulations of DC-M in school year 2011-2012, the year before the demonstration began. For the Access Evaluation, researchers at Mathematica collected: (1) student enrollment files for a sample of school districts in the demonstration; and (2) Medicaid data for school-age children. The authors matched these two types of files based on individual identifiers, such as name and date of birth, to simulate DC-M. If a student was found to be enrolled in Medicaid, they assessed whether the income information in the Medicaid file indicated that the student would be eligible for free meals and determined the certification status that each student in the school enrollment file would have if DC-M were used in addition to actual SY 2011-2012 certification procedures. Impacts are measured by comparing these simulated certification outcomes under DC-M to districts' actual certifications that year. Such comparisons reveal the extent to which DC-M could increase the number of students certified for free meals and decrease the reliance on applications. Separate simulations show the potential impact of DC-M under different matching algorithms and policies. Key findings from the Access Evaluation include: (1) DC-M could increase the direct certification rate by 12 percentage points in Access Evaluation districts; (2) The potential increase in the percentage of students certified for free meals is smaller--at 6 percentage points--because some of the students who could be directly certified under DC-M would be certified for free meals by application in the absence of DC-M.; (3) There is substantial variation in the effects of DC-M across districts; (4) The simulated impacts vary little under alternative matching procedures; and (5) The simulated impacts vary little under most alternative policy assumptions. The following are appended: (1) Methods; (2) Supplemental Tables Related to Simulations of DC-M as Currently Authorized; (3) Supplemental Tables Related to Simulations of DC-M under Alternative Policies; and (4) Supplemental Tables on Reasons for Match Failure and Indeterminate Income.