Severe need breakfast reimbursement rates will be available for the 2009-2010 school year. The new 2009-2010 school year reimbursement rates will be announced after July 1, 2009. For information purposes, the reimbursement rate for the 2008-2009 school year was an additional $.28 for each free or reduced price breakfast.
REQUIREMENTS:
To qualify for the severe need breakfast reimbursement, each SCHOOL (not school district) must meet the following criteria:
1. The school is currently participating in or desires to begin a breakfast program.
2. Forty percent (40%) or more of the lunches served to students in the school in the SECOND PRECEDING year (2007-2008) were served free or at a reduced price.
DISTRICT DECISION:
The district MUST COMPLETE the attached District Decision Form even if the district is NOT going to apply for individual schools to receive the severe need breakfast reimbursement rate. This form must be signed by the school district superintendent and mailed to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) Child Nutrition Unit (CNU) office. Forms may also be faxed to CNU at 501-324-9505; however, the forms cannot be e-mailed.
APPLICATION PROCESS:
The district that DOES want to apply to receive the severe need breakfast reimbursement rate MUST COMPLETE two copies of the attached Severe Need Application Form, listing ALL SY2007-2008 SCHOOLS, regardless of whether a school may be eligible. All schools MUST be included without regard to the 40% criteria because the total participation in all schools for lunches served to students must balance to the total number of lunches claimed by the school district for the 2007-2008 school year.
The severe need determination is made on a per school basis, not for the entire school district. Only the schools that maintain lunch counts by EACH INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL may be approved for this additional reimbursement. For example, if two Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) (i.e., Junior High and High School) use the same cafeteria and the meal counts are not reported separately for each LEA to the district level, NEITHER will be eligible for the special severe need rate regardless of the percentage (%) of Free and Reduced Price participation. See the note in the Instructions for column 7 for help determining participation numbers.
DEADLINES FOR REQUIRED FORMS TO BE RETURNED TO CNU:
1. All districts are to print and return ONE (1) completed and signed original “District Decision Form” before February 1, 2009, and;
2. School districts applying to receive the severe need rate are to send TWO (2) completed and signed original “Severe Need Application Forms” before February 27, 2009 to:
Arkansas Department of Education
Child Nutrition Unit
ATTN: Jimmy Burks
2020 W. 3rd Street, Suite 404
Little Rock, AR 72205
PAPERWORK REDUCTION:
Schools are no longer required to complete the severe need justification report for the additional funds. Effective July 1, 2004, Section 201 of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 amended the criteria for determining a school’s eligibility for severe need breakfast reimbursement. This change eliminates most of the paperwork previously associated with the additional reimbursement.