USDA Direct Certification With Medicaid for Free and Reduced-Price Meals Demonstration, SY 2019-20

The demonstration of Direct Certification with Medicaid for Free and Reduced-Price Meals (DCM-F/RP) enhances benefit coordination by allowing authorized states and school districts to use information from Medicaid data files to identify students eligible to receive meals for free or at a reduced price, such that eligible students can be certified for meals without the need for household applications. Fifteen states participated in the DCM-F/RP demonstration. The current report examines outcomes related to certification, participation, federal reimbursement, and state administrative costs in SY 2019-20 and over the course of the demonstration.

Key findings in this report include:

• In SY 2019-20, more than 1.2 million students were directly certified for free meals based on Medicaid data in the 13 States for which this outcome was measured.
• In SY 2019-20, 240,000 students were directly certified for reduced-price meals based on Medicaid data in the 13 demonstration states for which this outcome was measured.
• State administrative costs decreased over the course of the demonstration, and only three states reported administrative costs for DCM-F/RP above $5,000 in SY 2019–20.