FNS invites state agencies that administer the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to apply to participate in demonstration projects that will evaluate the effectiveness of conducting direct certification with the Medicaid program.
This report responds to the requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Direct certification is a process conducted by the states and by local educational agencies to certify eligible children for free meals without the need for household applications.
The National School Lunch Program Afterschool Snack Service is a federally-assisted snack service that provides cash reimbursement to encourage or assist schools in serving snacks to children after the regular school day. The afterschool snack component of the NSLP helps children fully engage in afterschool programming by filling the hunger gap many children face in the afternoon and early evening. Children participating in an approved afterschool care program age 18 and under, and participating children who turn 19 during the school year, are eligible to receive reimbursable snacks through the NSLP.
The eSFSP projects test changes to the existing structure and delivery mechanism of SFSP to determine if they lead to increased participation.
This rule proposes to amend the eligibility regulations for free and reduced price meals under the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to codify the statutory provision that establishes the community eligibility provision, a reimbursement option for eligible local educational agencies and schools that wish to offer free school meals to all children in high poverty schools without collecting household applications.
The interim rule entitled Direct Certification and Certification of Homeless, Migrant and Runaway Children for Free School Meals was published on April 25, 2011.
Once you get your new or expanded breakfast program up and running, it is important that you are able to measure progress with implementation as you move forward. This section of Implementation focuses on evaluating your program- what are your successes? Where can things be improved? The Measuring School Breakfast Success document provides several suggested data sources for finding this type of information out.
The attached Q&As are issued in follow-up to Policy Memorandum SP 50-2013, Release of the new state agency Direct Certification Rate Data Element Report.