What is Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a 4-year reimbursement option for eligible local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools participating in both the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) that wish to offer free school meals to all children in high poverty schools without collecting household applications.
Benefits
- Lunch and breakfast are served free to all students in participating schools
- No household applications for free and reduced meals are collected
- No verification of free and reduced applications is required
- Potential for increased meal participation rates, especially breakfast
- Simplifies the counting and claiming process by not having to track free, reduced and paid students
- Benefits of Community Eligibility - Interactive Graphic
Considerations
- Meal participation level (district-wide, group or single site)
- Anticipated level of Federal reimbursement
- Non-Federal resources available to cover operating costs above Federal reimbursement. Use the USDA Monthly Federal Reimbursement Estimator to project the financial impact.
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Implications of the Community Eligibility Provision for Participating Schools and Districts - DPI Letter June 2016
Who is Eligible to Participate
- Districts, groups of schools or single school sites with an Identified Student Percentage (ISP) of at least 40 percent based on data as of April 1st of the prior school year.
- Must agree to serve both breakfast and lunch at no cost to all students for four consecutive school years.
- Must cover any costs of providing meals above the amount provided in Federal assistance with non-Federal funds.
- Residential Child Care Institutions are not eligible to participate.
- CEP Planning and Implementation Guidance
Eligible and Near Eligible Sites
Annually Wisconsin DPI will compose a list of LEAs (Local Educational Agencies) eligible and near eligible to participate in Community Eligibility Provision. Information used to compose this list is from the Verification Collection Reports of SY 2016-2017. Data is not fully reflective of the number of identified students, nor is it representative of data as of April 1, 2017. This list is intended for informational purposes and does not grant eligibility for Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).
Local Educational Agencies that do not qualify as a whole may have individual schools or groups of schools that are eligible to participate in CEP.
The CEP LEA and School Notification Report contains both LEA and school level eligible and near eligible data for SY 2018-19.
Reimbursement
CEP sites will only need to track the total number of breakfast and lunch meals served each day, and will no longer need to keep track of meals served by FREE, REDUCED, and PAID rate categories. Instead, the total number of meals will be reimbursed at FREE or PAID rates.
SFAs will be reimbursed at the Federal free category rate using the ratio of Identified Students to enrolled students (who have access to one meal service daily), multiplied by the USDA multiplier factor of 1.6. The multiplier factor is intended to estimate the number of free and reduced price meals that would have been served if applications were collected. The difference between the free claiming percentage and 100 percent represents the paid claiming percentage. There are no reduced price meals in CEP.
To Apply
Webinars
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Strategies for Collecting Alternate Income Forms (password for webinar: 94YeVe3j)
Resources for Currently Participating Sites
CEP Advanced - 'In a Nutshell'
Annual Requirements
- Calendar of School Nutrition Requirements for CEP Schools
- CEP Sample Letter to Households (Spanish) (Hmong)
- CEP Public Release (For SFA-wide CEP) (Spanish)
- CEP Public Release - Mixed District (SFA with CEP and Non-CEP sites) (Spanish)
Point of Service Records
- POS Breakfast Meal Counts Form
- POS Lunch Meal Counts Form
- CEP Monthly POS Breakfast Count Form
- CEP Monthly POS Lunch Count Form
Monitoring and Claiming
- CEP Visiting Students Flow Chart
- Provision to non-Provision Transfer Student Flow Chart
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Provision to non-Provision Transfer and Carryover Template Letter
SFAs can use this template to communicate student transfer and carryover status from Provision (CEP and P2) schools to Non-Provision schools.
Policy Memos and Mailings
USDA
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Early Implementation of Eligibility Carryover Period for Students Transitioning from provision Schools: State Agency Extension Option SP 52-2016, USDA, 08/5/16
- Extension of the Deadline for Local Education Agencies to Submit Applications to Elect the Community Eligibility Provision SP 25-2015, USDA, 03/09/15
- Community Eligibility Provision: Annual Notification and Publication Requirements SP 11-2018, USDA, 03/15/18
Final Rule and Questions & Answers
- Final Rule
- Most recent Questions and Answers
- Community Eligibility Provision: Guidance and Updated Q&As SP 54-2016, USDA, 09/09/16
DPI School Nutrition Team
- New Annual Requirement: Special Provision Match DPI SNT, 10/9/15
- CEP – Commonly Asked Questions and Updates DPI SNT, 09/11/15
Title I and Other Funding Programs
While CEP removes the need for free and reduced meal paper applications there may still be a need to collect household socioeconomic data for other programs such as Title 1 and SAGE. There are now two applications to choose from to collect this data. Please note, all costs associated with distributing, collecting and reviewing these household income forms must be paid for with funds outside of the non-profit school food service account.
Alternate Income Forms
DPI Alternate Household Income Form
For SFA-wide CEP
The Alternate Household Income Application is a way to collect socio economic data from students in CEP schools. This application has been designed to be easy to complete, which assists in increasing the response rate from households.
Implications of the Community Eligibility Provision for Participating Schools and Districts - DPI Letter June 2016
Title 1 and AGR Resources
- This Title I Letter describes the Title I money allocation Process for LEAs opting CEP.
- CEP Joint Letter - signed by Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture and Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, 2/25/14.
- USDA and US Department of Education release joint letter in support of Community Eligibility - 8/5/2015
- U.S. Dept of Education CEP Guidance for Title 1 Revised March 2015
E-Rate
- The E-Rate Letter explains the process for schools to determine the data to use in applying for discounts on services received under the E-Rate Program.
- DPI E-Rate website
Modified USDA Free and Reduced Application
For Group or Single Site CEP within One SFA (Mixed District)
It is now permissible to use a modified version of the USDA Free and Reduced Meal Application for CEP and non-CEP schools. This application must include additional language regarding CEP and has been included in the documents below. Some of the benefits of this application include:
- Only one application is needed for all schools in the district both CEP and non-CEP
- If a student transfers from a CEP school to a non-CEP school, this application can be used to determine eligibility in the non-CEP school since it is a USDA form.
You must be able to identify applications that have only CEP students on them. These applications are not needed for meal eligibility and can not be included in Verification, Independent Review of Applications or as part of certification and benefit issuance during an Administrative Review. We added a box on the application to assist with tracking.
Even though this is a USDA application, the processing of applications with only CEP students on them, cannot be charged to the food service account since it is not needed for the school meal program eligibility determination. If there is an application with both CEP and non-CEP students listed, this application is needed to determine eligibility for non-CEP students and is permissible to charge to the food service account.
CEP Contacts
Kirsten Voss, MS, RDN, CD
(608) 267-9132
kirsten.voss@dpi.wi.gov
Jessica Lessner
(608) 267-2293
jessica.lessner@dpi.wi.gov