CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) and Household Income

CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) and Household Income

Simply stated, CEP is an eligibility classification for services based on the Household Income Survey.

Federal Guidelines:
"To be eligible for CEP, LEAs (Local Education Agencies) and schools are required to have an identified student percentage (ISP) – the percentage of enrolled students who are identified students – greater than or equal to 40 percent (ISP ≥ 40 percent) as of the most recent April 1. Identified students are those certified for free school meals without the use of school meal applications and not subject to verification, such as those directly certified through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)."

This is entirely different from FRL data, which determines free and reduced lunch eligibility through meal applications.

Rather than collecting school meal applications to make individual eligibility determinations, schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students participating in specific means-tested programs (household income.)

An eligible LEA (Local Education Agencies) may elect CEP on behalf of a single school, a group (or groups) of schools, or all schools in the LEA. To be eligible for CEP, LEAs and schools are required to have an identified student percentage (ISP) – the percentage of enrolled students who are identified students – greater than or equal to 40 percent (ISP ≥ 40 percent) as of the most recent April 1. Identified students are those certified for free school meals without the use of school meal applications and not subject to verification, such as those directly certified through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
This is why the Household Income Survey is so important. CEP schools are determined by income and not by who is receiving lunch which is determined through meal applications. This is why every student has to have a Household Income Survey. Each year, Food Service is looking at school percentages to maintain the school's eligibility.

"As the HIF  (Household Income Form) is not a form to determine eligibility for any school meals program, per USDA regulations school nutrition staff member paid for with Child Nutrition funds may not collect these forms.  It is up to the LEA to determine who is responsible for the collection of the HIF within their schools."

Stated in another way:
As a participant in CEP or Provision 2, per USDA regulations, you may not use the FRL application to determine free and reduced-price meal eligibility status. However, ... many benefits and programs for both your students and schools, as well as equity determinations, depend upon these numbers. Therefore, we ask CEP and Provision 2 schools to use the Household Income Form to provide household size and income information that would otherwise have been collected using the FRL applications and that is required to accurately complete the October 1st VT Census Data Collection (DC06) (Fall ADM Submission.)
Note: The income ranges for the Household Income Survey are updated each year. The ranges must be changed in the Household Income Survey Ecollect forms for New Registration, ASU, and PreK - K Registration.

How is Household Income Data Collected?

PowerSchool collects income data based on the Household Income Survey the state provides and that students fill out during online registration. This determines if a student is eligible for other State services and is used to calculate the Equalized Pupil Count. Cafe Enterprise does not store this data. That system stores data from meal applications that are filled out during registration.

PowerSchool and Household Income Data

The AOE requires school districts to collect household income data for all students during the registration process. The details about this requirement are explained in this article.  

AOE provides the Household Income Survey to collect this data, and annually updates the income ranges that determine the separate levels of eligibility  (Free, Reduced, Ineligible.) This data is stored in PowerSchool using three fields on the Special Services page of a student record.





The Household Income Survey, Form H in the registration process collects the number of people in household and the household combined income:

Eligibility is calculated based on the combination of the number of people in the household and the income range.

Hint: An easy way to figure out eligibility based on the Household Income Survey:
  1. Option A is always "At or below X" - these students are calculated as Free.
  2. Option B is always "Above X and at or below Y"  - these students are calculated as Reduced.
  3. Option C is always "Above X" and those students are ineligible.

SLDS and Income Data

This data is submitted to the AOE with every SLDS submission through the PS_Enroll file. AOE refers to this data as "NSLEG."

Per the SLDS knowledgebase site:

How do we report NSLELG for students whose families did not submit a household income / NSLP income form?

If the student’s family did not submit a household income/NSLP income form, you would report this student as 96- Not Eligible.

01 - Free breakfast or lunch
02 - Reduced-price breakfast or lunch
09 - Declined
96 - Not Eligible

We are a CEP school, do we report all our students as 01 (Free)?

No, you should report whether a student is eligible to receive Free/Reduced lunch, not whether or not they are receiving it.

What does declined mean? In the NSLELG codeset?

If a student’s family is eligible to receive Free/Reduced lunch, but, decline free/reduced lunch services, these students should be reported 09 - Declined

01 - Free breakfast or lunch
02 - Reduced-price breakfast or lunch
09 - Declined
96 - Not Eligible


BSD CEP Schools

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