11.29.2017 Did You Know? Students affected by the Northern California wildfires can be directly certified for free school meals!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Students in households that received Disaster-CalFresh (D-CalFresh) as a result of the Northern California wildfires can be directly certified for free school meals.
These students, who are facing extraordinarily difficult circumstances, would greatly benefit from seamless, paperless access to free school meals now and for the remainder of school year 2017-18.
Increasing the number of students directly certified for free school meals is important for the district too! Direct certification is used to determine eligibility for Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and is also important for maximizing state education funding through LCFF.
WHAT SCHOOL DISTRICTS NEED TO DO:
D-CalFresh recipients are already included in the state Direct Certification match, which can be downloaded from CALPADS. Make sure to pull the extract report for the entire year (back to July 1) rather than pulling the report for only December. County Welfare Department can also conduct a local direct certification match and share this information with school districts.
ACT IMMEDIATELY!
It’s a best practice to conduct Direct Certification on a monthly basis. It’s important for the affected students that a match is conducted as soon as possible.
Learn more about CFPA’s school meal enrollment advocacy.
Questions? Contact Elyse Homel Vitale at 510.433.1122 ext. 206.
