Introduction: Empirical studies reveal that school feeding programs have significant positivernimpact on school participation. Such studies suggest school feeding programs are effective inrnencouraging school enrollment, enhancing class attendances, and lowering student drop-outs.rnTo the contrary, few other studies reveal that there are no observable impacts of school feedingrnprogram on school participationrnObjective: Compare the difference in school participation; specifically on school enrollment,rnclass attendance and drop-out of students of school feeding program beneficiary and nonbeneficiaryrnchildren of primary school, in Bishoftu Town of East Shoa Zone, Oromia RegionalrnState, Ethiopia.rnMethods: Community based comparative cross-sectional study was employed to compare therndifference in school participation of 428 respondents from school feeding program and 428rnrespondents from non school feeding program schools. Simple random sampling technique wasrnemployed to identify the schools and study participants; household questionnaire, keyrninformant interviews and school record review were used to collect data. Collected quantitativerndata were analyzed using mean, proportion, independent sample test and bivariate correlationrntechniques. The study was carried out after getting permission from research and ethicsrncommittee of School of Public Health, Addis Ababa University College of Health Science.rnResults: Except enrollment (p=.001) the study found no significant positive effect of schoolrnfeeding program on two of school participation indicators (attendance and drop-out), althoughrnit has some roles with regard to these objectives. The result also shows that the major factorsrnaffecting school enrollment are availability of school, school factor, distance to school, thernavailability of food incentives and safety concerns. Whereas, those affecting class attendancernand student drop-out were illness, domestic work (29.3% for SFP and 21.41% for non SFPrnhouseholds), school hour hunger and distance to school. Besides, it has been determined thatrneven among beneficiary (p=0.001) households, the older the household head is the higher likelyrnthat the children get enrolled. However, it is found that neither household head education norrnhousehold income have significant effect on student drop-out in beneficiary households.rnConclusion: The study recommends that both the nutritional and economic values of schoolrnfeeding program should be improved in order to significantly enhance school participation.