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Special Provisions

Sponsors/LEAs operating under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) have special certification and reimbursement alternatives available known as Special Provisions. Under these provisions, eligible sponsors and schools apply to the state agency for approval. Schools with a very high percentage of children eligible for free and reduced price meals are most likely to benefit from these provisions.

School Nutrition Program (SNP) Training

Community Eligibility Provision

Schools adopting CEP are reimbursed based on the percentage of students directly certified for free meals, such as those in SNAP, Foster Care, Migrant Ed, or McKinney-Vento programs.


To reduce burden on LEAs, ODE CNP has streamlined data collection. LEAs submit primary source documents to ODE CNP, which conducts the matching process and returns a file to the sponsor for review and final validation. See "Getting Started with CEP" below for step-by-step instructions.​

Current Participants (LEAs & Sites):

SY 2025-26 CEP Participation Reports​​

End of Cycle Notification:​

Sites in the final year of their CEP agreement are listed on a separate tab in the participant list. CEP agreements expire June 30, and SFAs must complete a new election to continue participation.

Eligibility Notification:

Notification data is for informational purposes only and does not confer eligibility. Proxy data does not reflect the total number of identified students.​​

Eligible Sponsors and Sites for SY 2026-202​7​​​

Student Success Act

The Oregon Community Eligibility Provision Incentive (CEPI) Reimbursement Program is a state-funded initiative available to public SFAs operating CEP under a 56.25% identified student percentage, supplementing federal reimbursements so that up to 90% of meals are reimbursed at the federal free rate for both breakfast and lunch (SBP/NSLP)​.

Reimbursement Goal

For SY 2026-27, the supplement goal remains at 90%. Identified student percentages (ISPs) less than 56.25% (multiplied by 1.6 = 90% federal free rate) will be receiving the CEPI supplemental funding.​

Resources

​CEP Election Due Date: June 30th of current SY

LEAs interested in the CEP must complete the steps outlined in the data collection instructions and file templates linked below.​

Provision 2

Provision 2 allows school(s) to serve meals to participating children at no charge, reduces application burdens to once every 4 years, and simplifies meal counting and claiming procedures by allowing a school to receive meal reimbursement based on base year claiming percentages.

During the Base Year, the school distributes free and reduced price meal applications and makes eligibility determinations for participating children, takes daily meal counts by type (free, reduced price and paid) at the point of service, or approved alternate, reports these counts for claiming meal reimbursement, and receives Federal and State (if applicable) reimbursement based on these counts as it normally does.

Follow the steps below to get started with Provision 2:

  1. Participation Agreement: Sponsors must submit a completed Provision 2 Sponsor Participation Agreement to ode.schoolnutrition@ode.oregon.gov for approval.
  2. Household Applications: Sponsors will collect and process either of these Free and Reduce Household Applications:
    1. ​ Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines (EIG) Free and Reduce Applications are applicable to public schools operating National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program only. Please see the Certification and Benefit Issuance webpage under Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines section for applications, guidance and resources.
    2. USDA Prototype Household Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals are only applicable to Private schools in Oregon, Afterschool Snack Program, or the Special Milk Program
  3. Income Eligibility Guidelines: Sponsors that are private schools cannot elect any of the Student Success Act (SSA) incentive programs and should only use the Federal Income Guidelines only. Public schools would use the Federal Income guidelines including the Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines. The Federal Income Guidelines including NSLP/SBP Oregon Expanded Income Guidelines are found on the Certification and Benefit Issuance​ webpage under Income Guidelines section.
  4. Sponsors will distribute base year parent notification letters:

During years 2, 3 and 4 of the cycle, the school makes no new eligibility determinations and continues to serve all students meals at no charge (this would continue to be the case as long as the school operates under the Provision.

The school takes counts of only the total number of reimbursable meals served each day, instead of counting meals by type. Reimbursement during these years is determined by applying the percentages of free, reduced price, and paid meals served during the base year to the total meal count for the claiming period in subsequent years. Federal and State (if applicable) reimbursement is based on these percentages (%) and the meals are reimbursed at the free, reduced price and paid rates.

Non-Base Year (NBY) Parent Notification Letters: