Public Law 108-265 amended the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to include migrant children as categorically eligible for free school meals. To document the free meal eligibility for migrant children the child nutrition staff should work directly with the Migrant Education Program (MEP) staff to identify migrant children and to document eligibility for free school meals.
MIGRANT STUDENT IDENTIFICATION
The five Arkansas Migrant Education Regional Cooperatives will provide lists of qualified migrant students to the district superintendent. The superintendent will provide the Migrant Student List to the district Free Meal Eligibility Certifying Official. Only MEP coordinators can certify a student as a qualifying migrant student.
For additional information regarding the persons serving as Regional Migrant Coordinators, see the attachment below. Please contact either the district’s assigned regional coordinator or William Cosme, ADE Migrant Education Administrator, at (501) 324-9660 regarding information required for qualifying migrant students.
FREE MEAL ELIGIBILITY PROCESS
Each school year, the required documentation of migrant status to substantiate free meal eligibility will be the MIGRANT STUDENT LIST. The list will contain each student’s name, qualification date of migrant status, add or drop dates and the signature of the regional MEP coordinator from the regional Migrant Educational Cooperative. This documentation is in lieu of a free and reduced price meal application. Once documentation is obtained, the household must be notified about the child’s free meal eligibility by the district determining/certifying official. Any application submitted on behalf of the child would be disregarded, but attach it to the Migrant Student List.
It is particularly important that newly arrived migrant children be certified for free meals as soon as possible. Each district needs to establish procedures with the MEP coordinator to assure prompt notification of the Child Nutrition staff when a new migrant child is identified. As migrant students are added or dropped from a school district, the list must be updated by the MEP coordinator AND the Free and Reduced Price Meals determining/certifying official will notify the school nutrition manager.
Public Law 108-265 established that once a Migrant child is certified as eligible to receive free or reduced price meals, ELIGIBILITY REMAINS EFFECTIVE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. Because of this and because the MEP strives to minimize a child’s disruption in services and benefits, each school should attempt to share the child’s free meal eligibility status with the new school when a migrant child moves. As students move into a district the regional migrant cooperative will notify the superintendent of any new migrant students.
For procedures related to free and reduced eligibility call the district ADE Child Nutrition Area Specialist, Barbara Smith, or Wanda Shockey at (501) 324-9502.