Community Eligibility Provision and E-Rate

Beginning with FY2015, schools and school districts participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) use their approved direct certification percentage to determine their NSLP percentage.

For each of its individual schools that participate in CEP, a school district will maintain the correct direct certification percentage (rather than the number of students eligible for NSLP) and the total student population of the school. The percentage of directly certified students will be multiplied by the CEP national multiplier (currently 1.6) to calculate the effective number of students eligible for NSLP. This calculation is capped at 100 percent of the student population for the purposes of determining the discount.

For details on the USDA Program, see:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/community-eligibility-provision

Documentation needed to support your CEP% for E-rate:

You will need to submit to us a copy of your State Department of Education, Office of Child Nutrtion, approval of your SFA application for participation in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The document must include the following information FOR EACH CEP SCHOOL SITE:

  • Name of School Site
  • A. Number of Identified Students
  • B. Enrollment
  • C. Identified Student Percentage (ISP) (A/B multiplied by 100)

Be sure to write on the form or on a separate document which school sites are participating in CEP OR if the school site has selected to use the school district aggregate total Identified Student Percentage.
See the following example. Note that EACH state has their own process on notification so you will need to check with your child nutrition department to obtain the correct form.