All Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) who participate in programs authorized by the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act must report the percentage of students eligible to receive meals at no charge to the family through direct certification or categorical lists. LEAs are required to provide this information through Identified Student Percentage (ISP) reporting.

Identified Students: Identified Students are students certified for free meals based on categorical eligibility, including students who are directly certified for free meals based on receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), students who are categorically eligible for free meals based on Homeless, Runaway, Migrant, Foster, Head Start, and Even Start status. This includes students from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12.

Identified Students are students certified for free meals based on categorical eligibility:

• students who are directly certified for free meals based on receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• students living in the household of a SNAP directly certified student
• students who are categorically eligible for free meals based on Homeless, Runaway, Migrant, Foster, Head Start, and Even Start
• students entered into the direct certification portal manually and deemed an “exact match”

This includes students enrolled in the district from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12.

Identified Students DO NOT INCLUDE:

• Students who are eligible based on a free or reduced income application
• Students who are eligible based on submission of a SNAP meal application or income application.

The following documents should be available before beginning the completion of the ISP report.

1. Direct Certification (DC) lists for 2022 – 2023 school year.
   DC lists were made available on the following dates:

   August 8, 2022;
   September 19, 2022;
   January 17, 2023.

   A final DC list will be available April 3, 2023. LEAs are required to use the April 3 list and at least two of the other lists from SY 2022-23 to update eSchool student eligibility status.

2. Categorical lists pulled on or before April 3, 2023. Each list should be signed and dated by the district liaison for the designated group: Homeless, Migrant, Foster, Runaway, Head Start or Even Start. This is documentation of a student’s status as of April 3, 2023.
3. Cognos Meal Status Report for a specific date (April 3, 2023).
4. School Enrollment Roster pulled April 3, 2023.
5. Cognos Family Address List (This report is not required but is beneficial when determining students who live in the same household.)
6. Instant Matches from the DC portal dated April 3, 2023, or earlier.
7. Any other documentation that allows a student not on the DC list to be classified as “04” in the meal status report.

April 15th Notification and Data Collection:

To complete the required reports, each LEA must use:

1. District-level eligibility data provided to LEAs by Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Child Nutrition Unit (DESE,CNU), and
2. School-Level eligibility data provided to DESE, CNU.

Reporting of Identified Students by School:

Attachment A – 2023 ISP District Notification Report provides the LEA the district-wide percentage of Identified Students based on FNS-742 Verification Collection Report and the FNS-834 State Agency (National School Lunch Program (NSLP) / Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Direct Certification Rate Data Element Report, submitted by LEAs during SY 2022-23. This information indicates identified students for October 1, 2022. This information is for district comparison only.

Attachment B - 2023 ISP School Level Annual Notification Report must be submitted to DESE, CNU no later than April 17, 2023. Please read the instructions tab as well as the instructions on the top of the form carefully.

Email the completed report to DESE, CNU at ade.chnutcep@ade.arkansas.gov.

By May 1, 2023, DESE, CNU is required to publish the lists of LEAs and schools who are eligible or near-eligible for the Community Eligible Provision (CEP) on the CNU website and submit these lists to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) for publication on USDA FNS’ CEP website.

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