Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s policy, including an eligibility scale and application, for providing free and reduced-price meals for children in the 2011-12 school year is now available.
The policy, served under the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, uses household size and income to determine whether a child is eligible to receive free, reduced-price, or full-price meal benefits.
Children automatically are eligible for free meals regardless of his or her household’s income if they receive food stamps, California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs), Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payments (Kin-GAP), or Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).
If a household is eligible through any of those programs and are not notified by Oct. 1, they should complete the regular application. Eligibility for a foster child is through a separate application and based only on the amount of the child’s “personal use” income.
Application forms have been sent to all households in the district and are available at the principal’s office of each school. An online version is available, in both English and Spanish, at smmusd.org.
Applications are accepted by schools at any time during the school year.