Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)

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.

CEP 'In a Nutshell'

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

• CEP Application Form 

Webinars

• 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)
• Use of the Individual ISP
• Annual Intent Form for 2019-20 SY

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 National School Lunch On-site Monitoring Form
• CEP School Breakfast Program On-site Monitoring Form 
• CEP Meal Count Edit Check Form 
• CEP Visiting Students Flow Chart
• Provision to non-Provision Transfer Student Flow Chart

• 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

• 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
  • Special Provision Match Results Form
• 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

CEP Contacts