Eligibility Manual for School Meals

Eligibility Manual for School Meals
Author: Food and Nutrition Service (USDA)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2008
Genre:
ISBN:

This manual contains information on Federal requirements regarding the determination and verification of eligibility for free and reduced price meals in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. These provisions also apply to the determination of eligibility for free milk under the Special Milk Program and are generally applicable to the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program when individual children's eligibility must be established. Local school food service operators should also confer with their State agency to determine which procedures and options are followed in their State. This manual replaces the Eligibility Guidance for School Meals Manual issued in August 2001. This updated version reflects changes made as a result of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, final and interim regulations, and policy clarifications issued since August 2001. Appended are: (1) Policy Statement; (2) Link to Application Materials; (3) Prototype agreement for Medicaid/SCHIP; (4) Disclosure: What May be Released Chart Update on Electronic Transactions; in the Child Nutrition Programs (May 1, 2007 memorandum); and (5) Verification Tools.

USDA Eligibility Guidance for School Meals Manual

USDA Eligibility Guidance for School Meals Manual
Author: Colorado. Department of Education. Nutrition Unit
Publisher:
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2007
Genre: National school lunch program
ISBN:

This manual contains information on determining students' eligibility for free and reduced price meals under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) (including after school snacks and commodity schools) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). It is also applicable to the Special Milk Program (SMP), for schools that serve free milk to eligible students.

Using American Community Survey Data to Expand Access to the School Meals Programs

Using American Community Survey Data to Expand Access to the School Meals Programs
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2012-10-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309257239

The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), are key components of the nation's food security safety net, providing free or low-cost meals to millions of schoolchildren each day. To qualify their children each year for free or reduced-price meals, many families must submit applications that school officials distribute and review. To reduce this burden on families and schools and to encourage more children to partake of nutritious meals, USDA regulations allow school districts to operate their meals programs under special provisions that eliminate the application process and other administrative procedures in exchange for providing free meals to all students enrolled in one or more school in a district. FNS asked the National Academies' Committee on National Statistics and Food and Nutrition Board to convene a panel of experts to investigate the technical and operational feasibility of using data from the continuous American Community Survey (ACS) to estimate students eligible for free and reduced-price meals for schools and school districts. The ACS eligibility estimates would be used to develop "claiming percentages" that, if sufficiently accurate, would determine the USDA reimbursements to districts for schools that provided free meals to all students under a new special provision that eliminated the ongoing base-year requirements of current provisions. Using American Community Survey Data to Expand Access to the School Meals Program was conducted in two phases. It first issued an interim report (National Research Council, 2010), describing its planned approach for assessing the utility of ACS-based estimates for a special provision to expand access to free school meals. This report is the final phase which presents the panel's findings and recommendations.