Child Nutrition Programs

Community Eligibility Provision

Participation Agreement

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) provides local educational agencies (LEA) in low income areas with an alternative approach for offering school meals instead of collecting individual applications for free and reduced price meals. The CEP allows schools that predominately serve low-income children to offer free, nutritious meals to all students through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP).

To be eligible for participation in the CEP, LEAs and schools must participate in both the NSLP and the SBP, have an identified student percentage on April 1 of at least 40% in the year prior to implementing the CEP, agree to serve free breakfasts and lunches to all students, and agree to cover with non-Federal funds any meal-related costs which exceed any Federal assistance provided. Reimbursement is based on LEAs’claiming percentages, which are in turn derived from the LEAs’identified student percentages. Identified Student data must come from a LEA’s actual data as of April 1 of the school year prior to participation in the CEP.“Identified students” means those students who are directly certified for free meals through participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), as well as homeless, runaway, Head Start, Even Start, and migrant youth. Students who are categorically eligible based on a free or reduced price meal application are not included within a LEA’s identified student percentage. Claiming percentages may be used for a period of four school years, and can be increased each year if the percentage of identified students in the LEA or school increases.

Those LEAs that wish to participate in the CEP must submit the CEP Agreement, CEPElection Worksheet and Student Listto the Oregon Department of Education’s (ODE)Child Nutrition Programs (CNP) by August 31, 2016, for all schools electing CEP.

If aLEA that is currently participating in the CEP wishes to opt out, add new schools, or update the ISP, the LEA must notify ODE by no later than August 31for the following school year.

In order to participate in the CEP, complete the following documents and submit them to ODE:

1)Signed CEPParticipation Agreement (on the next page of this document)

2)The CEPElection Worksheet located on our website at (must be returned in original excel format)

3)Additional Student Lists as needed

These documents are due to ODE by no later than August 31, 2016. Submit via

Secure file transfer .

Contact your assigned child nutrition specialist if you have questions about the CEP, or the school meal programs in general.

Child Nutrition Programs

Community Eligibility Provision

Local Educational Agency Participation Agreement

Sponsor agreement#: District Name:

This agreement is between the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) and <insert local Educational Agency Name> and covers the period of four years starting on July 1, 2016, and endingon June 30, 2020. The Local Educational Agency’s (LEA) schools may stop participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) during the four-year cycle by notifying ODE no later than June 30 of the school year prior to when they want to return to traditional counting and claiming procedures.

The undersigned LEA official has the authority to enter this Agreement to participate in the CEPon behalf of all schools in the district or some of the schools in the district and elects to receive payments under the CEP in lieu of payments otherwise available based on free and reduced price lunch applications.

A. It is mutually agreed between ODE and the LEA that:

  1. The LEA agrees to serve all children in the participating schools free breakfasts and free lunches for four successive school years.
  2. The LEA must have a percentage of enrolled students who were Identified Students, per the LEA actual data as of April 1st2016, that is greater than or equal to 40%.
  3. The LEA agrees to pay, from sources other than Federal funds, the costs of serving breakfast and lunches that are in excess of the Federal assistance received, including Federal cash reimbursement.
  4. The LEA agrees not to collect free and reduced price meal applications that will be used for meal price determination from households in participating schools during the period of participation in the CEP.
  5. The LEA agrees to maintain a total count of breakfasts and lunches served at the point of service daily by building.
  6. The LEA agrees to abide by all requirements for applying and administering the CEP as stated in section 11(a)(1) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, as amended by section 104(a) of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 1759a(a)(1)).
  7. The LEA agrees to retain all student eligibility documentation used in development of the identified student percentage, such as records for the initial approval year and records from the year any updates are made to the identified student percentage, during the entire period the CEP is in effect. In addition, the LEA agrees to retain this documentation for a period of three years after submission of the final Claim for Reimbursement for the last fiscal year of the LEA’s participation in the CEP.

B. General Conditions

1.This agreement is non-transferable.

2.Neither ODE nor the LEA has an obligation to renew this agreement.

C. Participating Sites:

<insert names of participating sites>

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Print Name:

District Superintendent (public schools) or Administrator (non-public school)

Signature: Date:

District Superintendent (public schools) or Administrator (non-public school)

THIS ARRANGEMENT does not constitute the entire agreement between the parties with respect to subject matter thereof.

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