Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is an alternative approach through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for offering free meals for students. Local educational agencies (LEAs) and/or schools must meet the following requirements to be eligible for CEP:

  • Meet a minimum level (25%) of identified; i.e., Direct Certified, students for free meals in the year prior to implementing the CEP.
  • Agree to serve free lunches and breakfasts to all students.
  • Not collect free and reduced price applications from households in participating schools.
  • Agree to cover with non-Federal funds any costs of providing free meals to all students above amounts provided in Federal assistance.

Please refer to the USDA’s Estimator to determine whether CEP-approval is a good idea for your school or district.


Setting up CEP in Campus

  1. Add the CEP Provision to each CEP approved school in System Administration > Resources > School.

    Screenshot of the School History screen. The Provision field is highlighted.
  2. Mark the Educational Benefits Applications Processed checkbox under FRAM > FRAM Preferences > Application Preferences and select whether CEP is approved for All Schools or Individual School(s) in the district.

    Screenshot of the FRAM Preferences tool. The Provision Preferences section is highlighted.
  3. Consult with the state department of education to determine whether you must collect socio-economic data in place of Free and Reduced Household Applications for state reporting purposes.

    If your school is collecting socio-economic  forms, the forms are entered in the same location as Free and Reduced Household Applications (FRAM > Household Applications). However, the socio-economic forms are differentiated from Free and Reduced Household Applications by selecting New > Educational Benefits Application rather than New > Meal Benefits Application.

    Screenshot of the Household Applications tool. The option called Educational Benefits Application is selected.

    Per the USDA, these socio-economic forms must not be entered by the Food Service Department. If the district is a mixed district in that not all schools are CEP-approved, this requires close communication within the district between non-Food Service Department staff who enter socio-economic forms and the Food Service Department staff who enter Free and Reduced Household Applications.


CEP Purchasable Item Setup Tips

For more information about setting up Purchasable Items, see the Purchasable Items article.

If the district implemented CEP...Then...
district-wide
  • retire current student meal purchasable items you currently have by adding a "z" in front of the purchasable item name then clearing the Active checkbox (this step retains historical price records).
    Screenshot of the Purchasable Item Detail editor. The Name and Active fields are highlighted.
  • Then create new student meal purchasables. You can use the naming convention CEP K-5 Lunch, CEP 6-12 Breakfast." etc.
    The Paid and Reduced prices for CEP student meals should be $0.00 so that students are not charged the first time they purchase a meal but are still charged for non-reimbursable meals.
    Screenshot of the Purchasable Item Detail editor. The Name, Reduced Price and Paid Price fields are highlighted.
  • Add the new purchasable items to your service layouts.
  • Reload terminals to update the service layouts.
at individual schools
  • continue using the current student meal purchasables at non-CEP schools.
  • Create CEP-specific school purchasables as noted in the district-wide setup above.
  • Replace the non-CEP purchasables with CEP purchasables within service layouts for schools that are now CEP. 

Processing Online Meal Benefit Applications

When at least one school has a provision like CEP set within System Administration > Resources > School in addition to having Provision Preferences set up in the FRAM Preferences tool, FRAM Processors must first verify the application type when processing an online application.

Screenshot of the Pending Applications tool. The Meal Benefits Application and Educational Benefits Application options are highlighted.


CEP FRAM Processor Suggested Tool Rights

The following are suggested tool rights for CEP FRAM Processors.

Reports

Tool

Path

Read

Write

Add

Delete

Allow Unfiltered Search

Student Information > Allow Unfiltered Search

X

 

 

 

Summary

Student Information > General > Summary

X

 

 

 

General Enrollment Information

Student Information > General > Enrollments > General Enrollment Information

X

 

 

 

People > Demographics

 

Selecting only People > Demographics gives the User the ability to Search for All People on the Search Tab.

Census > People > Demographics

 

 

 

Household Info

Census > Households

X

 

 

 

Household Addresses

Census > Households

X

 

 

 

Household Members

Census > Households

X

X

X

 

Add Person

Census > People > Add Person

X

X

X

 

Eligibility

FRAM > Eligibility

X

X

X

X

Letters and Messages

FRAM > FRAM Communication

X

X

X

X

Online Applications ContentFRAM > FRAM CommunicationXXXX

Eligibility End Date Wizard

FRAM > Eligibility End Date Wizard

X

X

X

X

Eligibility Import Wizard

FRAM > Eligibility Import Wizard

X

X

X

X

FRAM Application Preferences

FRAM > FRAM Preferences > FRAM Application Preferences

X

X

X

X

Household Applications

FRAM > Household Applications

X

X

X

X

Income Guide

If there are more than 20 people in a household, you can add W/A/D rights as needed so the user may increase the default listing of 20 or less in the Income Guidelines. Infinite Campus recommends removing the W/A tool rights after the update is made.

FRAM > Income Guide

 

 

 

Household Applications

FRAM > Reports > Household Applications

X

 

 

 

Eligibility

FRAM > Reports > Eligibility

X

 

 

 

Log Off

 

X

X