Last Thursday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee released a draft of its child nutrition reauthorization (CNR) proposal to replace the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA). POLITICO reports that the 175-page discussion draft would prevent further sodium reductions for school meals, “allow all forms of produce into a currently fresh-only fruit and vegetable snack program,” and increase barriers for school districts to opt into the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for school meal programs. The draft proposed allowing any meal pattern item to be sold a la carte, “eliminate a requirement that all school fundraisers… meet nutrition standards,” and require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to review its whole grain nutrition requirements as well.
Although the HHFKA expired in September last year, many of its nutrition programs are permanently authorized and therefore continue to receive funding and operate “on autopilot.” Earlier this year, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee passed its own CNR proposal to replace the HHFKA, however, the bill has yet to be introduced before the full Senate for a vote. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report estimating the bill would increase the national deficit by $1.1 billion over the next decade, so it’s been on hold until policymakers can tweak provisions so it won’t cost as much. Advocates for the Senate bill hoped the House version would follow the Senate’s, but the recent draft leads analysts to believe there will be a hefty reconciliation process or even a risk that no CNR bill will be passed this year.
Regarding the House draft, one of its most alarming provisions has to do with the CEP program. For a refresher, community eligibility permits schools that serve a large number of high-poverty students to allow all students to have access to free- or reduced-price meals. POLITICO adds that the CEP “allows schools where many students are from low-income families free breakfast and lunch under the premise that it reduces stigma as well as paperwork.” And USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) explains that the CEP also eliminates administrative burdens of collecting and verifying household applications to determine student eligibility for school meals, because CEP relies on information from other programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
While the current CEP eligibility threshold requires schools to serve at least 40% of low-income students to be able to opt into the program, the House proposal would increase that requirement to 60%. If the new threshold prevails, some schools that are currently enrolled in the CEP will no longer be able to do so. Raising the threshold would have major implications for low-income students who rely on CEP to access affordable and nutritious meals. Also, school business officials and nutrition program managers can expect to deal with increased administrative workloads once their school is no longer eligible to opt into the CEP. That’s why the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) is co-hosting a Congressional briefing to persuade Congress to reconsider changing the CEP eligibility requirements.
On April 19, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., ASBO International will co-host a Community Eligibility Briefing with AASA—The School Superintendents Association, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), and the School Nutrition Association (SNA). The briefing will educate Capitol Hill staff and Congressional officials about the CEP program and its benefits for increasing student meal participation and reducing administrative burdens for schools, and share district success stories from school leaders that have implemented the CEP (see the official event invite for more information). Following up on a suggestion by New York ASBO Executive Director Michael Borges, ASBO International invited Lisa Kyer, a New York ASBO member and business administrator of Lansingburgh Central School District (LCSD) in Troy, NY, to speak at the event.
According to Kyer, LCSD, an urban school district that serves 2,350 students, has transitioned into a “true urban” district over the last decade and a half. “We still have a suburban piece to our district, but the urban has grown to be the larger portion of the population. [The students] are very high-need and low-income,” she says. Kyer explains that LCSD first opted into the CEP in SY2013–2014, and is currently in its third year with the program. She says community eligibility has helped her district in several ways. CEP:
- Increased overall student attendance as well as the number of students who come to school early.
- Removed the need for administrative prerogative applications and reduced “hundreds of hours of administrative time spent on collecting completed applications.”
- Increased the number of students who eat breakfast and allowed LCSD schools to renovate outdated cafeterias and kitchens.
- Has allowed some students who may not have had the ability to eat at school to do so. Kyer says, “Before the program, some students fell through the cracks, especially at the older levels. Their parents wouldn't complete the application for free/reduced meals and would send the child to school without money or a lunch. We tried to catch as many of these students as possible, but were not always successful.”
FRAC and CBPP, two other partners of the Congressional briefing, just released a new CEP report, and plan to share their findings during the event. The report says this year, “more than 18,000 high-poverty schools, in nearly 3,000 school districts across the country, have adopted community eligibility,” an increase of approximately 4,000 schools as compared to last year. The report provides other CEP statistics, information on how CEP works, and tools to help school leaders and administrators “identify eligible schools and districts that have not adopted the option but could benefit from it.” CBPP and FRAC note that only 37%, or 2,981 school districts across the U.S. have adopted the CEP in some or all of their schools. The top five U.S. states/territories with the highest percentage of school districts that opted into the CEP for SY2015–2016 are: North Dakota, West Virginia, Kentucky, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.
For more CEP information, check out the full FRAC/CBPP report. Also, stay tuned to the Legislative Affairs Community for more updates on the CEP program, results from the congressional briefing, and other K–12 news.