The Advocate October 2023: All Things School Nutrition

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been busy this year with new rules and regulations for school meal programs. This month, we’re putting everything you need to know about what’s happened and what to expect all in one place.

Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Final Rule

Most recently, on September 26, USDA issued a final rule on changing the eligibility threshold for CEP, reducing it from 40 to 25 Identified Student Percentage (ISP). This rule will go into effect on October 26, 2023. Schools must have the right ISP by April 1 prior to the year they wish to participate. As this time, it seems the earliest schools will be able to take advantage of this change will be SY2024-25 – opting in by April 1, 2024.

USDA does not have the authority to increase the multiplier beyond the current 1.6 so it will remain the same. AASA will continue to advocate for Congress to increase the CEP multiplier to expand the program and ensure it is financially viable for districts to participate. Additionally, we are cognizant of CEP’s impact on the availability of Free and Reduced Priced Lunch (FRPL) data and are working with partners in Washington, D.C. to identify alternative poverty measures that are not reliant on school meal programs for data. However, in response to recent concerns, it is important to note that FRPL does not determine Title I allocations. Those allocations are based on Small Area Income Poverty Estimate (SAIPE) data which is pulled from the census.

Child Nutrition Integrity Rule

In early August, USDA published a final rule on program integrity to ensure that child nutrition programs are properly operated and managed to protect federal funds and taxpayer dollars. The relevant changes provided in the rule aim to simplify monitoring for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) by increasing flexibility and reducing redundancy and paperwork. Most notable, it allows state agencies to return to a 5-year administrative review cycle and requires state agencies to conduct reviews on a longer than 3-year cycle to identify high-risk school food authorities (SFAs) for additional oversight. This has been a child nutrition priority for AASA, and we are excited to see it implemented.

Additionally, the rule allows for flexibility and state discretion around certain requirements for audits, administrative reviews and account assessments. See full details of these changes here. It will now depend on states to opt-in to these changes in order for districts to benefit from the simplified processes.

Addressing Summer Hunger

Thanks to bipartisan action from Congress, there are new tools available to address summer hunger:

1. Summer EBT: will provide $40 a month during the summer months to students who qualify for FRPL or are directly certified. The program will begin next summer (summer 2024), and states have until January 1, 2024 to notify USDA that they will be participating. Initial guidance was released this summer so schools and states know what to expect for implementation of the program. Most notable for school leaders is that students who are directly certified or already enrolled in FRPL—known as streamline certification in this program—will automatically be enrolled in the program by the state and do not have to be matched against school records. Additionally, states must create a statewide form for other students who may qualify but cannot be streamline certified. These actions from USDA are based on listening sessions they held with stakeholders and aim to minimize the administrative burden on schools. A formal Interim Final Rule for Summer EBT will be released later this year.

    

2. Non-congregate meal service in rural areas: This policy change built upon the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic—that in certain areas, the flexibility for schools to provide meals through a grab and go or delivery model were far more successful in ensuring students had access to the meals they need. This option first became available in Summer 2023 (initial implementation guidance here), but further guidance from USDA is expected soon to improve the implementation of the program in the future. In the meantime, this webinar and fact sheet from No Kid Hungry may be helpful for any district interested in opting into this flexibility for next summer.

Updates to School Meal Nutrition Standards – Final Rule Coming Soon

In February, USDA issued a proposed rule to update the nutrition standards to align with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines. A final rule is expected early next year. As a reminder, the rule provides limits on the usual categories: milk, sodium and whole grains; and, for the first time ever, added sugars. Full details on the proposal here. The proposal provides a gradual implementation timeline, starting in SY24-25 and ending in SY29-30. We have encouraged USDA to give districts ample time to prepare for these changes so implementation can be successful. Additionally, we hope USDA has been engaging with manufacturers to ensure districts have access to the products that will need to align with the new changes. You can read AASA’s comments on the proposed rule here.