Change in Meal Application Approval Process

This management bulletin introduces a change to the pre-approval process for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) electronic and household meal applications and provides resources for local educational agencies (LEAs) to access state and federal regulatory guidance and information.

Change to Preapproval Application Process

In the past, school food authorities participating in federal meal or milk programs were required to submit to the Nutrition Services Division (NSD) for preapproval any changes to meal application prototypes. However, this is no longer a USDA requirement; therefore, beginning immediately, the NSD is streamlining this process for LEAs by transferring the responsibility for complying with meal application requirements from the NSD to LEAs.

This change means that the NSD will no longer collect and review either paper or electronic household meal applications for preapproval as part of the annual NSLP and SBP application approval process. Instead, LEAs will be responsible for ensuring that all state and federal regulations are met. The LEAs’ process will continue to be reviewed as part of the Administrative Review (AR) from the NSD.

LEAs may continue to utilize the NSD’s prototypes and can locate them on the California Department of Education School Nutrition Programs Eligibility Materials Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sn/eligmaterials.asp.

State and Federal Regulations

The USDA guidance and requirements for meal applications and Letter to Households, per Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 245, can be found in the USDA Eligibility Manual for School Meals at http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/guidance-and-resources. [Note: The preceding link is no longer valid and is replaced with https://www.fns.usda.gov/resources.]

Note: The NSD and the USDA, Food and Nutrition Service do not evaluate, recommend, approve, or endorse any software used for electronic and scanned meal applications, certification, or verification purposes. Further, there are no federal specifications for software vendors. LEAs are responsible for assuring that these processes meet all regulatory requirements and policies. Therefore, if software is used to perform all or part of these processes, the LEA must assure the software used is performing correctly and meets all state and federal requirements.

Further guidance on electronic applications is provided in the USDA Policy Memo SP-10-2007: Update on Electronic Transactions in the Child Nutrition Programs. This policy memo is available on the USDA School Meals Policy Web page at http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/policy.

California Education Code (EC) Section 49557 addresses the state’s requirements for meal applications, which details the LEAs application obligations and statement requirements. Please note that, per EC Section 49557(b), LEAs remain responsible for submitting a plan for ensuring that children receiving free and reduced-price meals are not treated differently than other children.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about the management bulletin, please contact your assigned School Nutrition Program (SNP) specialist. The SNP specialist list is available in the CNIPS Download Forms section, Form ID Caseload. You can also contact the SNP Unit by email at SNPInfo@cde.ca.gov to be directed to your SNP specialist.