174096 Meals

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Free and Reduced Price Meal
Eligibility
Marilynn Wells
Director, Food Services Branch

CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS
7 CFR Parts 210 and 220
! Congressional intent that nutritious meals be
available to all school children regardless of the
household’s ability to pay.
! Code of Federal Regulations, 7 CFR Part 245
outlines eligibility requirements for free and
reduced price meals
! USDA is the regulatory agency
! SFA’s must enter into agreements to operate
meal programs to comply with USDA regulations

Free and Reduced Price Policy
Statement
!Names of officials designated to make

eligibility determinations
!Assurance that the School Food Authority
(SFA) will comply with current income
eligibility guidelines
!Description of how the SFA will prevent
overt identification of children receiving
free or reduced price meals

Public (Media) Release
!At the beginning of each school year,

public must be notified that the National
School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School
Breakfast Program (SBP) are available.
!Must include the eligibility criteria
!Must be provided to the local news media

Methods of Eligibility
Determination
!Direct Certification
!Provision 2
!Meal Application

Free/Reduced Meal Eligibility
October 31, 2002

October 31, 2003

Total Enrollment

739,210

737,516

Total Free and
Reduced Price

552,873
(75% needy)
250,605 (45%)

556,370
(75% needy)
173,728 (31%)

Direct Certification

75,277 (17%)

87,353 (16%)

Paper Applications

226,991 (41%)

295,289 (53%)

Provision 2

Direct Certification
! Simplified method of determining eligibility for
free meals without an application
! Department of Public Social Services (DPSS)
provides an electronic file containing the names
of LAUSD students receiving CalWORKs or
food stamps
! If a match is made, the student is identified as
eligible for free meals
! Households receive notice of direct certification

Benefits of Direct Certification
!Customer friendly; no application required
!Reduces paperwork
!No income verification required

Direct Certification in LAUSD
!FY 02
!FY 03
!FY 04

9,000
146,000 July 2002
75,277 December 2002
159,000 July 2003
87,185 October 2003

Changes in Direct Certification
Status as of 11/7/03
!Free

16,398
!Reduced 398
!Paid
253

Provision 2
! Applications required only in the base year; 4
year cycle
! All students receive meals at no charge
! Parents not motivated to submit meal
application
! Reimbursement based on participation in each
eligibility category
! Revenue minimized if students who are eligible
for free or reduced priced meals do not submit
meal application; counted as paying students
! Example: $2.21 (free) compared to $.23 (paid)

Meal Applications
! Must be accompanied by “letter to households”
listing instructions on how to complete form
! Privacy Act statement – disclosure of social
security number or “none” is required for
approval of the application; SSN is required
under provisions of the Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act

Distribution of Meal
Applications
!On or about July 1 or soon thereafter
!SFA’s are required to distribute

applications at the beginning of the school
year to parents of all children in attendance
in school except those who were directly
certified.

Application Campaign
! Sports celebrities:
– Antonio Martinez, L.A. Galaxy
• KMEX, Univision, Channel 32 and KVEA - Telemundo,
Channel 52, KWHY, Channel 22, KRCA, Channel 62, KLCS

– Hong Myung Bo, L.A. Galaxy
• KLCS

– Tyrone Marshall, L.A. Galaxy
• KLCS, KCBS, KNBC, KTLA, KABC, KCAL, KTTV,
KCOP, KSCI, KCET, KLCS

– Nikki Teasley, Shaquala Williams, L.A. Sparks

Application Campaign
!Television PSA’s
– Board President, Jose Huizar
– Kevork Keushkerian, Assistant Principal Le
Conte
– Others

!Radio PSA’s
!Posters
!Newspapers

Application Campaign
!Partnerships with
– Big Saver Foods
– Los Angeles County
– MTA

Translations
! Spanish
! Chinese
! Korean
! Vietnamese

! Russian
! Armenian
! Farsi

Processing of Applications
! Eligibility determination made within 10 working
days of the receipt of the application
! U.S. citizenship is not a condition of eligibility
for free and reduced price benefits
! Eligibility may be determined by categorical
eligibility (CalWORKs, food stamps, FDPIR,
foster child) or by income and household size
! Household must be notified of eligibility

Workload Reduction Provided
to School Sites
!Meal applications processed at Beaudry –

60,000; 26,386 scanned
!Siblings certified – 1,600
!Direct Certification – 159,000
!Provision 2 – 173,728

Confidentiality
!Information on meal application is

confidential
!Aggregate information may be disclosed to
any program or individual
!Prior parental consent is required in some
cases

Non-Compliance Issues
!USDA APB: SP 02-02; Title 7, Code of

Federal Regulations Section 245.5:
“A school nutrition sponsor may not
require households to submit an
application to participate in school
nutrition programs.”

Non-Compliance Issues
! 7CFR, Chap 11, 245.6 (2): “…the person signing
the application certifies that all information
furnished in the application is true and correct,
that the application is being made in connection
with the receipt of Federal funds, that school
officials may verify the information on the
application, and that deliberate misrepresentation
of the information may subject the applicant to
prosecution under State and Federal statutes.”

Verification
! Confirmation of eligibility
! Annually, SFA must select and verify a sample of
applications
! Verification efforts must be completed by
December 15
! Under random sampling, the SFA must verify a
minimum of the lesser of 3 percent or 3,000 of
the total number of approved applications

2002 – 2003 Verification Results
!Number of Households Verified - 3,103
!Household cleared – 1,316 (42%)
!Households terminated – 1,787 (58%)
–
–
–
–

Free to ineligible – 61
Reduced Price to ineligible – 40
Withdrew from program – 3
No response – 1,683

Over-certification
!The U.S. Congress is concerned about

the number of children approved for
free or reduced price meals who may
not be eligible based on other poverty
indicators such as the Current
Population Survey (CPS).

Over-certification
!In 1999, the percentage of children

determined to be eligible for free
meals was estimated to be 127% of
the CPS estimate of school-aged
children at or below 130% of the
poverty guidelines (income level
required for free participation)

Over-certification
!The USDA’s Office of Inspector General

determined that in one state nearly 20% of
the approved free or reduced price meal
applications selected for verification
resulted in a loss of those benefits because
either the households did not respond or
benefits were changed if they did respond.

2002/03 Free Reduced
Eligibility
County
Kern
Los Angeles
Orange
Riverside
Sacramento
San Bernardino
San Diego
San Francisco
Ventura

% Free and Reduced
60%
62%
39%
50%
43%
51%
43%
59%
36%

2002-2003 Free/Reduced
Eligibility – Major Cities
Fresno Unified
Long Beach Unified
Los Angeles Unified
Oakland Unified
Sacramento City
Santa Ana Unified
San Francisco Unified
San Diego Unified

76%
65%
75%
66%
63%
75%
59%
59%

2002-2003 Free/Reduced Eligibility
– Neighboring School Districts
Alhambra City Elem

66%

Alhambra City High
El Monte City Elem
El Monte Union High
Hawthorne Elementary
Inglewood Unified
Lynwood Unified
Montebello Unified
Pomona Unified

63%
80%
64%
84%
56%
62%
74%
69%

Meal Eligibility
Meal Eligibility

800000

700000

600000

744042

729700

714123

739210

691309

500,856
72.45%

506,532
70.93%

505,491
69.27%

483,915
65.04%

500000

479,055
64.81%

400000

300000

159,989
23.14%

200000

100000

0

30,464
4.41%

33,475
4.69%

211,147
28.38%

178,955
24.52%

174,096
24.38%

45,254
6.20%

48,980
6.58%

210,921
28.53%

49,234
6.66%

1998-1999

1999-2000

2000-2001

2001-2002

2002-2003

Enrollment

691309

714123

729700

744042

739210

Free Elig.

500856

506532

505491

483915

479055

Reduced Price

30464

33475

45254

48980

49234

Full Price

159989

174096

178955

211147

210921

Projected Title 1 Eligibility
Title 1
Category
65% +
40% - 64%

SIS
12/18/02
261
85

Below 40% 63
Other (1)
57
Total
466

SIS
10/31/03
256
114

Survey
10/31/03
296
98

96
0
466

72
0
466

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schools



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