FNS Documents & Resources

A final rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Community Eligibility Provision-Increasing Options for Schools (88 FR 65778), was published on Sept. 26, 2023, with an effective date of Oct. 26, 2023, that established the 25 percent minimum ISP threshold.  As a result, more students, households, and schools have the opportunity to experience CEP’s benefits, such as increasing access to school meals at no cost, eliminating unpaid meal charges, minimizing stigma, and streamlining meal service operations.

This final rule amends the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) regulations by lowering the minimum identified student percentage (ISP) from 40 percent to 25 percent. 

This rulemaking proposes to expand access to the Community Eligibility Provision by lowering the minimum identified student percentage participation threshold from 40 percent to 25 percent, which would give states and schools greater flexibility to choose to invest non-federal funds to offer no-cost meals to all enrolled students.

Households with a child  approved to receive free or reduced price meals under the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program during the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school year are eligible for the Federal Communication Commission’s Emergency Broadband Benefit. EBB is a federal program to help eligible families pay for internet service during the pandemic.

This is a revision of a currently approved information collection for Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer for the reporting burden associated with administering P-EBT.

This memorandum provides clarification on questions related to child nutrition program oversight, monitoring, and administration. 

In an effort to make the distribution of P-EBT benefits to eligible children as efficient as possible, USDA has developed a simple P-EBT summer plan template. The template allows states to elect a USDA-determined standard benefit that relieves states of the burden of determining their own benefit levels based on state-specific school district calendars.

This memorandum provides information on the exclusion as income of rebates under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 in FDPIR, TEFAP, and CSFP.

FNS is establishing a targeted waiver, for all states and local educational agencies, to extend statutory and regulatory deadlines relating to Community Eligibility Provision reporting and election during the public health emergency due to COVID–19.

FNS is establishing a nationwide waiver to support the Community  Eligibility Provision while schools are responding to the novel coronavirus. The deadlines affected by this waiver include the CEP election, notification and reporting deadlines.