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Making Universal Meals a Reality through the Community Eligibility Option Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Today s Moderators Julie Abrera, MAM Director School Nutrition Foundation Madeleine Levin, MPH Senior Policy Analyst Food Research and Action Center
Today s Topics Learn how the Community Eligibility Option works to provide universal free meals in schools with high percentages of low-income students, while reducing administrative requirements and increasing participation. Hear best practices and tips for implementing CEO. Gain insight on how CEO can help schools implement alternative breakfast models like grab-and-go and breakfast in the classroom.
Today s Panelists Lindsay Blough, MS Principal Consultant Illinois State Board of Education Nutrition & Wellness Programs Illinois Brenda Fish Director of School Nutrition Floyd County Schools Kentucky Donna S. Martin, EdS, RD, LD, SNS School Nutrition Director Burke County Public Schools Georgia
Today s Panelists Madeleine Levin, MPH Senior Policy Analyst Food Research and Action Center
What is FRAC?
History of Community Eligibility It doesn t make sense for high-poverty schools to go through the standard application process to identify the few children who do not qualify for free or reduced price meals Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 included Community Eligibility as a new option to allow high-poverty schools to serve all meals free and focus on feeding hungry children and improving meal quality rather than on collecting paperwork Community Eligibility is designed to be extremely easy for a school or district to adopt and will be available nationwide in the 2014-2015 school year
Phase-in Process* SY 2011-12 SY 2012-13 SY 2013-14 SY 2014-15 WA OR ID MT WY ND SD MN WI MI NY ME VT NH MA RI CT CA NV UT CO NE KS IA MO IL IN KY OH WV PA VA MD NJ DE DC AZ NM OK AR TN SC NC HI TX LA MS AL GA FL AK * Slide from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
How Community Eligibility Works High-poverty schools typically where 75 percent or more of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals - provide free breakfasts and lunches to all students without collecting applications Any school can use this option when 40 percent or more of students are certified for free meals without application (called Identified Students ) If implementing in multiple schools, the district can calculate the reimbursement rate for the group of schools as a whole, using their combined enrollment and total number of Identified Students
Who Are Identified Students? Students certified for free meals without submitting a school meal application Children directly certified (through data matching) because they live in households that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Cash Assistance (TANF), or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) Children who are certified without application because of their status as being in foster care or Head Start, homeless or migrant
Reimbursements % Identified Students x 1.6 = % meals reimbursed at free rate; the rest are reimbursed at paid rate Example: a school with 50% Identified Students would be reimbursed at the free rate for 80% of the breakfasts and lunches it served (50% x 1.6 = 80%) and the remaining 20 percent would be reimbursed at the paid rate Participating schools are guaranteed to receive the same reimbursement rate (or a higher one if the percentage of Identified Students increases) for 4 years
Meal Reimbursements with Community Eligibility The reimbursement rate for both lunch and breakfast is determined by multiplying the percent of Identified Students by a 1.6 multiplier. The resulting number is the percent of meals reimbursed at the free reimbursement rate, with the rest being reimbursed at the paid rate. % Identified Students Percentage Free Percentage Paid 40% 64% 36% 45% 72% 28% 50% 80% 20% 55% 88% 12% 60% 96% 4% 65% 100% 0
Feedback from CEO Schools 100% of the school districts that implemented the option in the 2011-12 school year surveyed by FRAC recommend CEO to others with similar levels of low-income students School districts report positive feedback from parents and school staff They also report increased ability to feed more students Some districts report an increase in revenue
More Benefits More schools offering breakfast in the classroom with large increases in participation
CEO Data: The First Year 665 Schools in CEO with 287,000 Students in IL, KY, and MI 7% of All Students and 10% of Free or Reduced-Price Certified Students Attended a CEO School
CEO Data: The First Year* * Data and slide from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Community Eligibility Resources Link to FRAC, USDA and State Materials: http://frac.org/community-eligibility/ FRAC Brief Community Eligibility Helps Low-Income Students and Schools CBPP Blog - Community Eligibility Expands Reach of School Meals Program Madeleine Levin, mlevin@frac.org, 202-986-2200 x3004
Today s Panelists Lindsay Blough, MS Illinois State Board of Education Nutrition & Wellness Programs Illinois
Overview of Implementing CEO the Illinois Experience Speaker: Lindsay Blough M.S. Illinois State Board of Education Nutrition & Wellness Programs www.isbe.net/nutrition lblough@isbe.net
Illinois Demographics IL Totals SY 2011-2012: Sponsors: 1184 Sites: 4413 CEO Data SY 2011-2012: Sponsors: 37 Sites: 160 Total Enrollment: 55,704 IL Totals SY 2012-2013: 1196 sponsors 4418 sites CEO Data SY 2012-2013: 57 Districts 476 sites Chicago Public Schools came in this year with 239 sites participating. Total enrollment of CEO schools: 193,243
Determining if CEO is for your District or School: Does the site/group/district meet the CEO requirements? Financially feasible IL has a calculator to help with this determination Impact on other programs Title I, E-rate and any programs/reports that need individual student eligibility.
Does the site/group/district meet the CEO requirements? 40% of enrolled students are identified students Serve breakfast and lunch Count all breakfast & lunches served Do not provide household apps Cannot be an RCCI Cover with non-federal funds the costs of offering free meals to all students, above amounts provided by federal reimbursement
Financially Feasible? We have developed a calculator that will help determine if CEO or Traditional counting and claiming would be the best option for your school or district. The calculator can compare free, reduced and paid reimbursement to the CEO reimbursement & it can calculate an increase in participation. However it does not take into account any financial savings due to no longer printing, mailing, and/or processing household eligibility applications, savings due to no longer being required to complete the verification process, savings due to no longer needing to chase overdue meal account balances or any other paperwork or labor hour savings that may occur due to implementing CEO.
What information is needed to complete the CEO worksheet? Determine if you want to do the worksheet by individual site, group or district. Claim data: Breakfast- free, reduced, paid meals Lunch free- reduced, paid meals Student prices: Breakfast reduced & paid. Lunch reduced & paid. Enrollment (individual site, group or district) Identified Students (individual site, group or district) Rate of Reimbursement (NSLP and SBP) Remember if you are grouping sites together or the district together combine your claim data, enrollment and identified student numbers!!!
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Example Group: Strawberry Elem & Grape Middle School Any Town, IL School Enrollment (total for both schools): 816 Number of Identified Students (total for both schools): 451 % Identified Students: 55.27% Paid Student Meal Prices: Lunch: $1.60 Breakfast: $1.00 Average Daily Participation %: Lunch: 81.36% Breakfast: 45.18% Lets say for this example that you anticipate a 10% increase in participation with CEO
Example District Wide: Water City Community School District, Any Town, IL School Enrollment (entire district): 5250 Number of Identified Students (entire district): 3049 % Identified Students: 58.08% Paid Student Meal Prices: Lunch: $1.85 Breakfast: $1.30 Average Daily Participation %: Lunch: 77.92% Breakfast: 41.22%
Impact on Other Programs Remember that you will no longer have individual student free/reduced/paid eligibility, therefore any reports or programs that used to use the NSLP f/r/p data you will no longer have that data by student from the NSLP. Title I E-Rate Fee Waivers
Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 The United States Department of Education has issued guidance related to Title I and CEO participating schools. A copy of the letter is available online at: http://www.isbe.net/nutrition/htmls/nslp-hhfka-ceo.htm Basically, participation in CEO does not impact the total amount of Title I funding that a school district receives, however, participation in CEO could possibly impact the distribution of those Title I funds within the district. For the distribution of funds districts should use the individual school CEO data (identified students/enrollment X 1.6 each school) even if they are a part of a group for meal claiming, they should not use the group percentage for Title I, they should use the individual school data for distribution of Title I funds. 32
E-Rate: The Federal Communications Commission has issued guidance related to E-rates and CEO participating schools. (July 2012) A copy of the letter is available online at: http://www.isbe.net/nutrition/htmls/nslp-hhfka-ceo.htm For E-Rate schools would use the free and reduced eligibility data from the year prior to starting CEO, so they would use the most recent year that they were not in CEO and were certifying households in the traditional manner of annual direct certification, household applications, etc.
Gathering Socioeconomic Status - IL Schools participating in CEO may still need to collect individual socioeconomic status of students in CEO schools for other programs. Not for the meal programs but other programs may need individual student information. To assist schools in gathering this data Illinois has developed the Alternative Household Form. This form is not tied to the NSLP, it is a completely separate form that can be used to determine individual student socioeconomic data for other programs or reports.
Recommendations Determine if CEO will be beneficial to your school or district. Do you meet the requirements to participate in CEO? Is CEO financially feasible for your school or district? Discuss CEO s impact throughout the district to determine if it is beneficial to you. Give yourself time to work on maximizing your schools Identified Students. Use your direct certification system Extend benefits to all applicable household members If you have applications with a SNAP/TANF # on them try to directly certify those students. If you determine that CEO is beneficial to your school or district - apply with your State Agency by their due date.
Today s Panelists Brenda Fish Director of School Nutrition Floyd County Schools Kentucky
Floyd County Schools, KY About Our District Located in rural eastern Kentucky 48,000 permanent residents 6,415 students in 16 schools 76% of students qualify for free and reduced price meals 55% and 63.5% Direct Certification Lunch Participation 76% Breakfast Participation 38% District Wide CEO Other Programs Breakfast in the Classroom Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Programs Afterschool Snack Program Summer Feeding
Today s Presentation Brief Update of CEO in Kentucky How our Decision was Made in Floyd Co. Benefits and Challenges Why CEO Worked
Preliminary CEO Survey Data 52 CEO Districts with 256 schools participating in SY 12-13 Survey Findings The average increase in ADP was 11% for first year sponsors and 9% in second year sponsors. The average increase in lunch meals served was 13.2% for first year sponsors and 6.39% for second year sponsors. Important Conclusions All first year and second year sponsors saw an increase in ADP, number of meals served and reimbursement with the exception of two school districts. Who both indicated a large decrease in enrollment as the reason The important factor to note that the increases still occurred while new meal patterns were being implemented.
Decision on CEO Participation
Real and Potential Benefits Food Service Benefits No Reporting of October data No household applications Minimal verification reporting is required District Benefits Eases financial burden for households Potential increase in student achievement Indirect financial impact due to increased collection of HIF forms
It s All About KIDS! Great things don t happen by accident. Great things happen when people make them happen. CEO is a great thing for KIDS. How do we make it happen, Brenda?
My Response
Essential Questions #1: What Are The Big Rocks For CEO?
The Big Rocks
Question #2 What Are The Big Rocks For Each Area?
Next Steps Meeting to discuss program with school leadership: Key Outlined program and requirements for success Clear that participation (especially breakfast) is Key Place kids in position to eat: Not required but encouraged. Emphasized that program could only be successful for KIDS with total commitment. Data analysis with Board: Board made decision to move forward based on data: Break even is goal but was willing to accept loss year one! Quarterly reports to board on progress: Number of meals and financial impact of program. Knowing we could opt out was KEY. Why do all of this for 25% percent of population: Because we can and it s the right thing to do.
Concerns. Food Service Could lose money Misconceptions by district, community & media CEO benefits difficult to terminate District District is liable for losses in food service Administrative capacity for processing HIF forms Poor return rate on HIF forms
Benefits Challenges Over 1,000,000 more meals served last year! Attendance is up: (Over 95%, 1 st time ever.) Connection? GREAT Public relations. KIDS who never ate are eating. 98% return of HIF forms. Financial picture is promising. Pay raise for staff & update equipment, now possible. Insufficient time. Extra work for all involved! Our motto has been reinforced all remain committed. Information: Family building in IC must be up to date and maintained at ALL TIMES. Constant monitoring to determine current status: Will we be able to continue?
Why CEO Worked Support of district leadership CEO s affect on other district programs (SEEK) Innovative marketing of CEO Actively engaged in CEO
Today s Panelists Donna S. Martin, EdS, RD, LD, SNS School Nutrition Director Burke County Public Schools Georgia
Burke County, GA Demographics County Population: 22,243 Poverty Level: 84% Free/Reduced Lunch ADP: 93.5% Breakfast ADP: 76.6% Unemployment Rate: 14% School System Enrollment: 4,600 students Population Density: 26.7 people/sq. mile Size of County: 835 square miles
Programs We Offer Breakfast in the Classroom Lunch Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Grant After School Snack Program Supper Program Summer Feeding Program
Community Eligibility Option Too good to be true? When is Georgia going to be eligible to participate? Decisions, decision, decisions??????
What does it take to make it work? What percentage would get me to 100% reimbursed at free rate? How much money were we talking about with this change?
To Do List Match school DC list to school master list Match un matched DC list students to school master list Run all unmatched students through the GO Screen Get list of migrant, homeless and foster students Research extended DC eligibility
Results Determine school by school percentage or county wide percentage Calculate difference in current funding to Provision 2 funding
Considerations Will CEO affect Title 1 funding? Will CEO affect technology E rates? Will our schools system still have to take applications?
Budget Prepare new budget!!
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