Community Eligibility for Free Lunch

What is the Community Eligibility Provision?

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a school meal funding option authorized by the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. CEP is designed to provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to students at schools, school districts, and local educational agencies (LEAs) in low-income areas.

Schools, school districts, and LEAs that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students who automatically qualify for free meals. Determining whether a student automatically qualifies for free meals under CEP is based on shared eligibility data between specific federal assistance programs, instead of through the collection of household income applications.

Electing to participate in CEP is a voluntary decision made by a school, school district, or LEA. The CEP operates on a four-year cycle.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for CEP, schools, school districts, and LEAs must meet the following requirements:

• Ensure that at least 25.0 percent of enrolled students are qualified students as of April 1st in the prior school year;
• Participate in both the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program;
• Offer breakfasts and lunches to all students at no charge; and
• Notify their state educational agency of their intent to participate in CEP by June 30th.

Identified Students

Identified students are students who are certified for free meals without the use of household income applications. Identified students include:

Students directly certified through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), or, in some states and areas, Medicaid benefits; and
Students who are certified for free school meals without an application because they are homeless, a migrant, enrolled in Head Start, or in foster care.

Transfers and Carryover Students

When a student moves from a CEP school to a non-CEP school during the school year (transfers) or between school years (carryover), such student is eligible to receive free meals for up to 30 days or until a new eligibility determination is made, whichever comes first.

Reimbursement

Schools, school districts, and LEAs that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of identified students. The identified students percentage (ISP) is calculated by dividing the total number of identified students by the total number of enrolled students.

(# of identified students / # of enrolled students) x 100 = ISP

To determine the percentage of meals reimbursed at the federal free rate, the ISP is multiplied by a factor of 1.6. Any remaining meals, up to 100.0 percent, are reimbursed at the federal paid rate.

For example, a school with 50.0 percent identified students would be reimbursed for 80.0 percent of the breakfasts and lunches served at the free reimbursement rate, and the remaining 20.0 percent would be reimbursed at the paid rate.

CEP requires LEAs to use non-federal funds to cover any costs of offering free meals to all students that exceed the federal assistance provided.

Final Rule Change

In September 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a final rule amending the CEP regulations by lowering the minimum ISP from 40.0 percent to 25.0 percent. Lowering the minimum ISP allows more schools to participate in CEP. The Food Research and Action Center estimates 3,000 additional school districts will be eligible to participate in CEP. According to the USDA, the benefits of lowering the ISP include increasing students’ access to free and healthy school meals, eliminating unpaid meal charges, reducing stigma, and streamlining program administration and meal service operations.

The final rule became effective on October 26, 2023.