School meals play an important role in supporting children’s nutrition. Despite substantial improvements in the nutritional quality of school meals following the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, concerns remain regarding the level of processing of the foods served in schools. This may be due to growing evidence of potential adverse outcomes associated with ultra-processed foods, which are industrial formulations designed to enhance the hyper-palatability and shelf life of foods. To better understand how frequently schools serve processed or minimally processed foods, a sample of 1,226 school food authorities (SFAs) across 8 states with and without state-level healthy school meals for all (HSMFA) policies were surveyed. Overall, the majority of schools regularly served convenience foods (i.e., pre-portioned, heat and serve items) and/or quick preparation foods (i.e. made by assembling and portioning foods with precooked ingredients), which primarily consistent of processed and ultra-processed foods. Conversely, 17% of schools served scratch or modified scratch cooked foods (i.e., minimally processed) daily and only 3% of schools reported serving exclusively scratch or modified scratch cooked foods. Most schools reported challenges related to insufficient funding—including for school meals, to recruit new staff, and for necessary kitchen equipment or kitchen facilities/storage. Additional funding to address these challenges may be needed to reduce schools’ reliance on more processed foods. Schools served minimally processed foods more frequently when they received federal grants to support local food purchasing or equipment, as well as if they were in states with HSMFA policies.