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Meal Access and Reimbursement

Certification and Benefit Issuance

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Sponsors of the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program must determine students’ free or reduced-price eligibility for meals. This page is devoted to assisting sponsors with eligibility determinations.

The Student Success Act was signed into law in May of 2019. It marked a significant investment in Oregon's schools and children, establishing the Oregon Expanded Eligibility Guidelines (EIG) Reimbursement Program to support more students in receiving meal benefits at school.

The program provides a supplemental reimbursement for meals provided at no charge to students who qualify under Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines (EIG), but who do not qualify for free or reduced-price meals under federal income guidelines. Oregon private schools are not eligible to participate in Oregon EIG. Public schools or districts participating in the National School Lunch Program and/or School Breakfast Program that charge any students for meals are required to participate.

For additional guidance on Oregon EIG and the Student Success Act, please visit the Oregon Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs Student Success Act webpage.

Visit the SNP Training page to view available training on this topic.

The Eligibility Tool Kit is a guide to support Eligibility Officials in making eligibility determinations. The tool kit acts as a roadmap and provides consolidated important resources in a single document.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued the updated comprehensive, user-friendly Eligibility Manual for School Meals: Determining and Verifying Eligibility in July 2017 to provide guidance in certifying students for free or reduced-price meals.

Visit ODE's Direct Certification webpage for the most current SNAP, Foster, and Medicaid resources.

Students who qualify for the Migrant Education Program (MEP) or McKinney-Vento services are automatically eligible for free meal benefits. Eligibility Officials should work closely with the liaisons for each of these programs to ensure meal benefits.

The Migrant Education Program ​ensures that migrant children fully benefit from the same free public education provided to other children. The Oregon Migrant Education Service Center provides a MEP directory of liaisons organized by Oregon regions.

The McKinney-Vento Act Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program ensures that children and youth experiencing homelessness are provided a free, appropriate public education, despite the lack of a fixed place of residence or a supervising parent or guardian. Every school district in Oregon has at least one designated liaison to provide direct assistance to families experiencing homelessness and unaccompanied youths.

Private schools that need access to the Direct Certification Login page will need to contact ode.schoolnutrition@ode.oregon.gov for access.​​

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Federal Guidelines – only applicable to Private schools in Oregon, Afterschool Snack Program, or the Special Milk Program

The Federal Household Application Processing Guidance is a guide on how to process income applications using federal guidelines.

​USDA Prototype Household Application for Free and Reduced-Price School Meals
Application Instructions and Parent FAQ
  • Additional Language Versions: Coming soon!​
    ​The letter templates from the USDA provide six different household letters combined into one document:​
    1. Sharing Information w​ith Medicaid/CHIP
    2. Sharing Information with Other Programs
    3. We Must Check Your Application
    4. We Have Checked Your Application
    5. Notice To Households of Approval/Denial Of Benefits
    6. Notice of Direct Certification

Eligibility Officials are the person(s) responsible for determining a student's eligibility for free or reduced-price benefits in School Nutrition Programs. In CNPweb, Eligibility Officials are listed on the site information sheet. In some instances, more than one person is assigned the responsibility for making eligibility determinations and the Additional Eligibility Officials form should be completed​.

Additional Eligibility Officials

Sponsors operating After School Snack Program or the Special Milk Program (SMP) will need to use the Federal Income Guidelines only. Sponsors that are private schools cannot elect any of the Student Success Act (SSA) incentive programs and should only use the Federal Income Guidelines.

The Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines (EIG) Reimbursement Program is an Oregon-funded school meal provision program. The program provides a supplemental reimbursement for meals provided at no charge to students who qualify under Oregon EIG but who do not qualify for free or reduced meals under federal income guidelines. Public schools or districts that participate in the National School Lunch Program and/or School Breakfast Program and charge any students for reimbursable meals are required to participate. The link below includes the federal guidelines and the Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines:
​

Note:  Be sure to use the correct income eligibility guidelines based on the time period.

2026-2027 Federal Income Guidelines including NSLP/SBP Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines​​​

The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) Child Nutrition Program (CNP) provides a free online meal application to all families and sponsors of the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and Special Milk Program. The application and instructions are currently available in English and Spanish.​

The Confidential Household Application for Free and Reduced Meals 
is a single online application that is used to determine household eligibility for School Nutrition Programs using federal USDA guidelines. Qualifying Oregon Schools will also use the Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines (EIG) to determine eligibility for Oregon's School Nutrition Initiatives. Separate applications are not required. Schools will notify households of application results directly.

Families may access the application by phone, computer, or other web-enabled devices. Completed applications are available to the sponsor by download and are processed as usual. Only completed applications are accepted.

Download Instructions for sponsors and Postcards promoting the Online Free and Reduced-Price Applications are available below. All sponsors are encouraged to utilize this free and highly accessible option for their families.

1. Instructions for School District Online Household Application Download

2. Postcards

Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines (EIG) – Applicable to public schools operating National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program only. Private schools, After School Snack Program, and the Special Milk Program must use the Federal Guidelines section.​

Oregon EIG Application Processing Guidance​
A step-by-step guide to processing eligibility applications for sponsors required to determine Oregon EIG eligibility as well as sponsors exempt from Oregon EIG requirements.

 Oregon EIG Household Applications for School Year 2025-2026

These household applications with the five common languages were modified to include the added Oregon EIG eligibility category in the school use area of the form.

These forms provided by USDA are not fully accessible and are intended for printing only.
Application Instructions, and Parent FAQ
Oregon EIG Household Letters

Child Income Policy Statement (CIPS)​

This form documents meal benefit eligibility for children in residence, sponsors with all foster students, or children in day programs who have "Other Source Categorical Eligible" documentation (Department of Human Services [DHS] foster or are wards of the court) for each student.

​Eligibility for children attending but not residing in an RCCI (day students), is determined using a household application or through direct certification. 

Additional information for the CIPS form is found in the Eligibility Manual.​

​The special provisions option for School Nutrition Programs (NSLP and SBP) gives sponsors the option to offer school meals at no charge to all students in those schools without collecting applications. Please follow this link for more information:

Special Provisions Page​​​

Meal Counting and Claiming

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School food authorities (SFAs) must have a meal counting and claiming system that accurately counts, records, consolidates and reports the number of reimbursable meals claimed by category (i.e., free, reduced-price or paid). The meal counting and claiming process must include a mechanism—manual or electronic—for counting meals and consolidating meal totals at each school within the SFA. The mechanism must also include an internal control system that validates total meal counts before the claim for reimbursement is submitted to the state agency.

​School food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) are required to institute and clearly communicate a written meal charge policy for children participating at the reduced-price or paid rate who either do not have money in their account or do not have funds in hand to cover the cost of a meal at the time of service. The policy must be communicated to all households with children attending the SFA , as well as to all school- or SFA-level staff responsible for enforcing the policy.

Resources

Verification

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Verification is the confirmation of eligibility for free and reduced-price schools determined through the application process. The Verification Collection Report is an annual requirement for all sponsors of NSLP and collects data on enrollment and direct certifications, as well as the results of the verification. 

The annual verification process begins on October 1 and ends on November 15. The verification reporting period is from November 1–February 1. Verification reporting is completed electronically on the claims tab in CNPweb.

NSLP/SBP sponsors must annually verify the eligibility of children from a sample of household applications approved for free and reduced-price benefits for that school year.

The Verification Process is not required of sponsors who operate: 
  • Special Milk Program only
  • District-wide Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) or
  • Provision 2 for all meals district-wide and are in a non-base year or
  • Residential Child Care Institutions (RCCI) without day students

However, completion of the FNS-742 Verification Collection Report is required for all sponsors.

ODE CNP requires sponsors to complete the FNS-742 report electronically in CNPweb. The form will be available in CNPweb after November 15. It is located on the claims tab. ODE does not accept paper or other electronic copies of the FNS 742 form.