TO: Principals, School Food Service Managers & Directors, Career & Technical Center Directors, and Superintendents
FROM: Laurie M Colgan, Director, Child Nutrition Programs
SUBJECT: Free & Reduced Price Student Eligibility Reminders
DATE: September 15, 2016
With the new school year underway, it’s important to share some updates and reminders to successfully provide meal benefits to all of your students. Webinars will be presented later this month for the upcoming Verification Process.
Student Eligibility in Career & Technical Centers: Transferring eligibility information in a timely manner between schools and school food authorities (SFAs) ensures that qualifying students continue to receive school meal benefits as they attend a technical center. This transfer of eligibility between the schools ensures that qualifying students continue to receive benefits and avoids the possibility of unpaid meal charges. It is strongly recommended that the sending school prepare a list of students attending the career and technical center, include the eligibility category with the date of eligibility, and then send that information to the school food service director at the technical center site. The technical center site may accept the eligibility determination from the student’s sending school without incurring liability for the accuracy of the former determination. As an alternative, the sending school could also copy the approved free & reduced meal applications and send them directly to the technical center.