Webinar: Compensatory Education Funding and Free-Reduced Price Meal
| Date: | August 12, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Webinar: Compensatory Education Funding and Free-Reduced Price Meal Applications |
| Category: | State Compensatory Education and Child Nutrition |
| Next Steps: | Register for the webinar |
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) would like to inform local educational agencies (LEAs) of an upcoming webinar being conducted by TEA in coordination with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to provide LEAs with strategies and best practices to collect socioeconomic data from families during the 2021-2022 school year.
Background
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a nationwide waiver allowing schools to operate either the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)/School Breakfast Program (SBP), the traditional school year program that offers meals at a free, reduced, or paid price; or the Seamless Summer Option (SSO), which allows schools to provide meals at no charge to all students. If an LEA chooses to operate SSO, households will not be required to submit an NSLP application in order to receive free meals for their children. However, LEAs are still required to collect household socioeconomic information to maintain funding for state and federal programs and services.
As many LEAs utilize the NSLP application to collect household socioeconomic information, alternative methods to collect this information may be necessary. Additionally, for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, the federal requirements for the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program required students to be certified for NSLP. Certification for NSLP requires the free and reduced-price meals application be completed.
Webinar Information
The webinar will occur Thursday, August 19, 2021, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CDT and will cover the following information:
- School meal program options for the 2021-2022 school year;
- Alternative methods to the NSLP application to collect household socioeconomic information if an LEA elects to operate an SSO; and
- Recommended best practices to promote high return rates of household socioeconomic forms.
Representatives from TDA and Cypress-Fairbanks ISD will be present on the webinar to discuss best practices and answer questions.
Webinar Link
Click here to join the webinar on August 19, 2021, at 12:00pm CDT.