State meal eligibility allows students who do not qualify for federal free or reduced meals to receive meals based on state-specific income guidelines.
This process includes:
- Manually assigning state eligibility
- Configuring meal pricing
- Understanding cashier experience
- Running federal and state reports
Note: Standard eligibility processing (applications, imports, and federal determination) follows normal system processes. This article focuses on state-specific differences.
Understand Eligibility Sources
Student eligibility for federally funded free or reduced lunch can be determined based on an online or paper application. These applications are processed in Campus in Online Applications or Household Applications.
State meal eligibility is not automatically calculated and must be evaluated manually using state guidelines.
Mark Students as State Meal Eligible
The State Code field is used for general state reporting, while State Meal Eligibility is a separate checkbox that controls meal pricing for state-qualified students. Students marked as state-eligible remain classified as Paid for federal reporting purposes, and state eligibility affects pricing only, not federal status. Because this designation is not applied automatically, you must update the State Meal Eligibility checkbox individually for each student who qualifies.
- Go to FRAM > Application Processing > Eligibility.
- Open the student’s eligibility record.
- Select State Meal Eligibility.
- Click Update for existing eligibility or Save for new eligibility.
Process Household Applications
Free and reduced eligibility is date-based, so changes to a household’s application can affect eligibility status. If a family submits a new application or an existing application is amended, a warning appears in Step 3: Review under Application Eligibility by Student, indicating that any previously assigned State Meal Eligibility will not carry forward to the new eligibility record. After processing the update, you must review each affected student and reapply the State Meal Eligibility checkbox if they still qualify under state guidelines.
- Go to FRAM > Application Processing > Household Applications.
- Create an application or View on an existing application.
- Follow the steps for Enter New Household Applications or Amend Household Applications.
- Click Process.
Configure Meal Items with State Pricing
State pricing is available only for reimbursable meal categories, such as Breakfast or Lunch, and does not apply to à la carte items. When you enable State Eligibility Meal, a State Price column is added to the Purchasable Item Pricing section. Once the item is used in a transaction, the configuration becomes locked. You can no longer modify the State Meal Eligibility checkbox or the initial pricing record once it's used, so confirm accuracy before saving and using the item.
- Go to Food Service > Administration > Purchasable Items.
- Create a new item or edit an unused item.
- Select either Breakfast Meal or Lunch Meal under Item Category.
- Mark the State Eligibility Meal checkbox.
- Select State Meal Pricing.
- Enter values for Paid, Reduced, Free, and the State price (commonly set to $0).
- Click Save.
State Eligibility Indicator in Point of Sale
In the Point of Sale terminal, students who are marked as state eligible display an “S” icon when they are selected as the active patron. This indicator provides a quick visual confirmation of state meal eligibility during transactions.
The icon appears only if the Eligibility setting under Display is enabled in POS Terminal Admin. If this preference is turned off, the “S” indicator and all eligibility icons will not be visible to the cashier.
Reporting (Federal and State)
State meal eligibility impacts both federal reporting and state funding reporting. While standard reports continue to support federal requirements, Ad Hoc reporting is required for state-specific data. Voided state eligible transactions are excluded automatically, as well as both the original void and reversal transactions.
Federal Reporting
Continue using standard reports, including the Edit Check Report, for federal meal reporting.
- Students with state meal eligibility remain classified as Paid
- Meals served to these students must be included in Paid meal totals
- Existing reports and processes do not change
You can also use Ad Hoc Reporting to generate:
- Student counts by eligibility status (Paid, Reduced, Free)
State Reporting
For instructions on adding report parameters and fields in Filter Designer, see the Query Wizard documentation.
To report for state funding, you must create Ad Hoc Data Export reports under Reporting > Ad Hoc Reporting > Data Export. Two reports are available:
State eligibility headcount report
This report tracks the number of students with state eligibility during a reporting period. Report results can be filtered by:
- Reporting date range:
- Start Date: Must be on or after the date applications were first accepted (typically July 1 of the current school year).
- End Date: Must be on or after the first day of the reporting period (for example, June 1, 2026, when reporting for June 2026).
- State eligibility = TRUE
In Filter Designer, build a query using fields under: Student or Census/Staff > FRAM > Eligibility.
Include:
- individual.lastName
- individual.firstName
- posElig.personID
- posElig.startDate
- posElig.endDate
- posElig.endYear
- posElig.eligibility - This is the student's Federal Eligibility and S = Paid.
- posElig.stateEligible - 1 = State Eligible is TRUE.
Monthly meal count report
This report tracks meals served to state-eligible students. In Filter Designer, build a query using fields under Student or Census/Staff > Point of Sale > State Eligible Transactions.
Include:
- posTxSE.personID
- posTxSE.studentNumber
- posTxSE.firstName (sort priority 3)
- posTxSE.lastName (sort priority 2)
- posTxSE.categoryName (sort priority 1)
- posTxSE.transactionID
- posTxSE.txTimeStamp (limit to reporting period)
- posTxSE.quantity
- posTxSE.amount
- posTxSE.description
- posTxSE.eligibilityCode
- posTxSE.purchasableID
- posTxSE.purchasableName
- posTxSE.stateCode
- posTxSE.schoolID
