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Resource | Federal Register Documents Child Nutrition Programs: Income Eligibility Guidelines (2024-2025)

This notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals, free milk, and Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer benefits for the period from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. 

02/20/2024
Resource | Federal Register Documents Determining Eligibility for Free and Reduced Price Meals and Free Milk

This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection for determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk as stated in FNS regulations.

05/08/2023
Resource | Technical Assistance School Meals Application Materials in French

The French translation of the Prototype Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals and accompanying materials.

07/18/2022
Resource | Comment Request Comment Request - Determining Eligibility for Free and Reduced Price Meals and Free Milk

This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection for determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk as stated in FNS regulations. These federal requirements affect eligibility under the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and the Special Milk Program and are also applicable to the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program when individual eligibility must be established

01/21/2020
Resource | Notices Child Nutrition Programs Income Eligibility Guidelines (2019-2020)

This notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk for the period from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020.

03/20/2019
Resource | Toolkits Verification Toolkit

School food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs are required to verify income for a small percentage of households approved for free or reduced price meals each school year. However, getting households to respond to verification requests can be challenging for SFA staff. If households do not respond, they lose their benefits regardless of their actual eligibility.

12/08/2018
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2017-0044 Eligibility Manual for School Meals

The manual provides comprehensive information on federal requirements, policies, and procedures, and is intended to help state agencies and local educational agencies accurately determine, certify, and verify children’s eligibility for free and reduced price school meals and free milk.

SP36 CACFP15 SFSP11-2017
07/05/2017
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2017-0009 Community Eligibility Provision: Annual Notification and Publication Requirements

This memorandum details guidance on the annual Community Eligibility Provision notification and publication requirements and provides information on the USDA-developed reporting template.

SP20-2017
03/16/2017
Resource | Policy Memos Area Eligibility in Child Nutrition Programs

The purpose of this memorandum is to revise guidance on the use of school and census data to establish area eligibility in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the At-Risk Afterschool component of CACFP, the Summer Food Service Program, and the Seamless Summer Option of the National School Lunch Program.

SP08 CACFP04, SFSP03-2017
12/01/2016
Resource | Policy Memos | FNS-GD-2016-0051 Ensuring Year-long Eligibility in the School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs

The purpose of this memorandum is to strongly encourage local educational agencies to accept eligibility determinations from a transferring student’s former LEA to minimize disruptions in meal benefits for low-income students and avoid student debt resulting from unpaid meal charges.

SP51-2016
08/05/2016
Page updated: October 14, 2021