Simplifying School Meal Access and Stabilizing Funding for High-Poverty Schools.
This Act simplifies how children qualify for free or reduced-price school meals by allowing states to permanently use Medicaid data for automatic enrollment. It also stabilizes funding for high-poverty schools that provide free meals to all students by codifying a fixed multiplier of 1.6 for reimbursement calculations. These changes reduce administrative burdens for families and ensure consistent nutritional support for children in need.
Key points
Qualification Simplified: States can permanently use Medicaid data to automatically enroll eligible children in free school meal programs.
Funding Stability: A fixed multiplier of 1.6 is established for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), ensuring predictable federal subsidies for schools offering universal free meals.
Introduced
Citizen Poll