Updated Information on CEP:
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently released a Community Eligibility Provision (“CEP”) “Take Up” report indicating that more than six million children now have better and easier access to free school meals through the CEP program. Putting E-rate aside, we believe that USDA’s CEP program is an effective way to increase NSLP participation in high-poverty schools. The program is particularly effective at the secondary school level by providing free meals to all students without identifying — and thus socially stigmatizing — low-income students.
Under CEP, direct certification is used to identify students automatically qualifying for free meals — largely those whose families qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”). Schools, or groups of schools, with Identified Student Percentages (“ISPs”) of 40% or more qualify for CEP if they are willing to provide free breakfast and lunch to all of their students. Meal reimbursements up to 100% are currently provided to CEP schools at a rate of 1.6x times the schools’ ISPs. For higher-poverty schools, with ISPs of roughly 63% or more, this means reimbursement rates at the full 100% level.
CEP was first rolled-out in a pilot program for 2011-2012. It became available nationwide for 2014-2015, and has already been widely adopted. The Center’s report indicates that in the 46 states for which data are available, 63% of the eligible high-poverty schools are now participating in CEP. As shown below, however, participation is far from uniform.
|
Nationwide |
Average |
Range |
Percentage of all eligible schools adopting CEP: |
32% |
0–81% |
Percentage of high-poverty schools adopting CEP: |
63% |
0–100% |
From an E-rate perspective, CEP may provide an incremental discount rate advantage. As of FY 2015, discount rates for applicants with CEP schools are calculated using the ISP figures and the 1.6x multiplier. For most high-poverty schools, this means that 100% of their students may be counted as eligible. This tends to have little effect on single-school applicants, many of whom were already at 90% discount rates before the CEP multiple was adopted. School districts, on the other hand, may see increases in student eligibility counts for groups of CEP schools which, at the margin, may also increase the districts’ overall eligibility percentage and, in some cases, their E-rate discount rates.
The Center also provides nationwide ISP data for individual schools and/or school groups. Our initial analysis of this database suggests that the percentages may not be fully up-to-date, but it does provide a relatively comprehensive list of schools and districts participating in CEP. We expect participation to grow year-by-year. Enrollment in the CEP program during its pilot phases had to be done by April of the preceding school year. To encourage greater participation, last year’s deadline was extended through August. A recent USDA memo has again extended the deadline for LEAs to elect CEP for the next school year until August 31, 2015. We encourage all eligible schools and districts not already using CEP to seriously consider joining the program.