Technical Notes

Community Eligibility Data Collection

2018–2019 School Year

Methodology

The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) obtained information on schools that have adopted community eligibility during the 2018–2019 school year from state agencies that administer the federal school nutrition programs. Under federal law, states are required to publish, by May 1 of each year, a list of schools and districts with identified student percentages (ISPs) of at least 40 percent and those with ISPs between 30 and just under 40 percent (i.e., near-eligible schools and districts).

These lists were reviewed, with missing or inconsistent data identified. In these situations, the state notes below provide an explanation of remaining data issues that are displayed in the database. FRAC compared the state-published lists to the lists from state agencies, and then compiled an exhaustive list of eligible and participating schools and districts for the 2018–2019 school year.

General Notes

This database includes data for all schools that are currently participating in community eligibility, as well as schools that are eligible or near-eligible to participate during the 2018–2019 school year. Any district, group of schools in a district, or school with 40 percent or more identified students can choose to participate. Identified students include children directly certified for free school meals through data-matching because their households receive assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). Some states participate in the Medicaid direct certification demonstration, which allows them to directly certify for free school meals children who are enrolled in Medicaid and belong to a family whose income, as defined by Medicaid, is below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. Identified students are also children who are certified for free meals without an application because they are homeless, migrant, enrolled in Head Start, or in foster care.

The schools are color-coded by ISP according to the following legend:

State Notes

The database includes 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Some states did not provide student enrollment information for certain schools: four schools in Hawaii, 182 schools in Louisiana, seven schools in Michigan, 25 schools in Mississippi, 14 schools in South Carolina, and three schools in Utah.

Some states did not provide the identified student percentage (ISP) used by adopting community eligibility schools to calculate federal reimbursements for meals served, often referred to as the "claiming ISP" or "grouped ISP." For these schools, the ISPs provided in this database are the individual school ISP reported by each state as of May 2018: 42 schools in Maine, one school in Mississippi, and 998 schools in Ohio.