174096 Meals
User Manual: 174096
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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
295,289 (53%)226,991 (41%)
Paper Applications
87,353 (16%)75,277 (17%)
Direct Certification
173,728 (31%)250,605 (45%)
Provision 2
556,370
(75% needy)
552,873
(75% needy)
Total Free and
Reduced Price
737,516739,210
Total Enrollment
October 31, 2003October 31, 2002
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 9,000
!FY 03 146,000 July 2002
75,277 December 2002
!FY 04 159,000 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
62%Los Angeles
50%Riverside
39%Orange
43%Sacramento
36%Ventura
59%San Francisco
51%San Bernardino
60%Kern
43%San Diego
% Free and ReducedCounty
2002-2003 Free/Reduced
Eligibility – Major Cities
66%Oakland Unified
59%San Francisco Unified
75%Santa Ana Unified
63%Sacramento City
76%Fresno Unified
59%San Diego Unified
75%Los Angeles Unified
65%Long Beach Unified
2002-2003 Free/Reduced Eligibility
– Neighboring School Districts
63%Alhambra City High
66%Alhambra City Elem
69%Pomona Unified
62%Lynwood Unified
56%Inglewood Unified
84%Hawthorne Elementary
74%Montebello Unified
80%El Monte City Elem
64%El Monte Union High
Meal Eligibility
Meal Eligibility
691309 714123 729700 744042 739210
479,055
64.81%
483,915
65.04%
505,491
69.27%
506,532
70.93%
500,856
72.45%
49,234
6.66%
48,980
6.58%
45,254
6.20%
33,475
4.69%
30,464
4.41%
210,921
28.53%
211,147
28.38%
178,955
24.52%
174,096
24.38%
159,989
23.14%
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
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
1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003
Projected Title 1 Eligibility
466466466Total
0057Other (1)
729663Below 40%
981148540% - 64%
29625626165% +
Survey
10/31/03
SIS
10/31/03
SIS
12/18/02
Title 1
Category
(1) Includes 1 Special ed, 3 continuation high schools and 52 Provision 2 schools
(1) Includes 1 Special ed, 3 continuation high schools and 52 Provision 2 schools
