As discussed in our newsletter of March 27th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) has proposed reducing the minimum Identified Student Percentage (“ISP”) required for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision (“CEP”) program from 40% to 25%. As of the public comment deadline last week, USDA had received over 10,000 comments supporting the proposed change.
Many of the comments were received from individual filers with a common refrain reading:
I support the proposed rule to lower the CEP threshold from 40 percent to 25%. Hungry kids can’t learn, and families of hungry students have the hardest time with the paperwork necessary to access school meals. This proposal would eliminate unpaid meal charges, minimize stigma, reduce paperwork for school nutrition staff and families, and streamline meal service operations. It’s a win for kids and schools!
An important individual letter of support came from the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the U.S. House of Representatives, cosigned by the Ranking member of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. The Committee not only supported lowering the ISP percentage but also expressed the hope that Congress would act to increase the current 1.6x multiplier.
We fully expect USDA to lower the ISP threshold as proposed; the question is when? Comments filed by the New York State Education Department (“NYSED”) encourage USDA to effectuate the change for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. That could best be done by waiving the July deadline for new CEP applications.
For the growing number of states like New York that are providing free meals for all students, the NYSED letter also notes that broadened CEP participation at a lower ISP threshold would lower the net costs of meals borne by those states. Additionally, from an E-rate perspective, we would note that dropping the ISP from 40% to 25% would, while maintaining the 1.6x multiplier, help schools in those states validate 40–64% NSLP percentages for discount rate purposes without having to solicit family income surveys.