81 FR 15501 - Child Nutrition Programs: Income Eligibility Guidelines

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food and Nutrition Service

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 56 (March 23, 2016)

This notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk for the period from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. These guidelines are used by schools, institutions, and facilities participating in the National School Lunch Program (and Commodity School Program), School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Program for Children, Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program. The annual adjustments are required by section 9 of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. The guidelines are intended to direct benefits to those children most in need and are revised annually to account for changes in the Consumer Price Index.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 23, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15501-15504]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-06463]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Child Nutrition Programs: Income Eligibility Guidelines

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the Department's annual adjustments to 
the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used in determining eligibility 
for free and reduced price meals and free milk for the period from July 
1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. These guidelines are used by schools, 
institutions, and facilities participating in the National School Lunch 
Program (and Commodity School Program), School Breakfast Program, 
Special Milk Program for Children, Child and Adult Care Food Program 
and Summer Food Service Program. The annual adjustments are required by 
section 9 of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. The 
guidelines are intended to direct benefits to those children most in 
need and are revised annually to account for changes in the Consumer 
Price Index.

DATES: Effective Date: July 1, 2016.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steve Hortin, Program Monitoring and 
Operational Support Division, Child Nutrition Programs, Food and 
Nutrition Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 3101 Park 
Center Drive, Suite 628, Alexandria, Virginia 22302, 703-305-4375.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This action is not a rule as defined by the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601-612) and thus is exempt from 
the provisions of that Act.
    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
3507), no recordkeeping or reporting requirements have been included 
that are subject to approval from the Office of Management and Budget.
    This notice has been determined to be not significant and was 
reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget in conformance with 
Executive Order 12866. The affected programs are listed in the Catalog 
of Federal Domestic Assistance under No. 10.553, No. 10.555, No. 
10.556, No. 10.558, and No. 10.559 and are subject to the provisions of 
Executive Order 12372, which requires intergovernmental consultation 
with State and local officials. (See 7 CFR part 3015, subpart V, and 
the final rule related notice published at 48 FR 29114, June 24, 1983).

Background

    Pursuant to sections 9(b)(1) and 17(c)(4) of the Richard B. Russell 
National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(1) and 42 U.S.C. 
1766(c)(4)), and sections 3(a)(6) and 4(e)(1)(A) of the Child Nutrition 
Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1772(a)(6) and 1773(e)(1)(A)), the Department 
annually issues the Income Eligibility Guidelines for free and reduced 
price meals for the National School Lunch Program (7 CFR part 210), the 
Commodity School Program (7 CFR part 210), School Breakfast Program (7 
CFR part 220), Summer Food Service Program (7 CFR part 225) and Child 
and Adult Care Food Program (7 CFR part 226) and the guidelines for 
free milk in the Special Milk Program for Children (7 CFR part 215). 
These eligibility guidelines are based on the Federal income poverty 
guidelines and are stated by household size. The guidelines are used to 
determine eligibility for free and reduced price meals and free milk in 
accordance with applicable program rules.

Definition of Income

    In accordance with the Department's policy as provided in the Food 
and Nutrition Service publication Eligibility Manual for School Meals, 
``income,'' as the term is used in this notice, means income before any 
deductions such as income taxes, Social Security taxes, insurance 
premiums, charitable contributions, and bonds. It includes the 
following: (1) Monetary compensation for services, including wages, 
salary, commissions or fees; (2) net income from nonfarm self-
employment; (3) net income from farm self-employment; (4) Social 
Security; (5) dividends or interest on savings or bonds or income from 
estates or trusts; (6) net rental income; (7) public assistance or 
welfare payments; (8) unemployment compensation; (9) government 
civilian employee or military retirement, or pensions or veterans 
payments; (10) private pensions or annuities; (11) alimony or child 
support payments; (12) regular contributions from persons not living in 
the household; (13) net royalties; and (14) other cash income. Other 
cash income would include cash amounts received or withdrawn from any 
source including savings, investments, trust accounts and other 
resources that would be available to pay the price of a child's meal.
    ``Income'', as the term is used in this notice, does not include 
any income or benefits received under any Federal programs that are 
excluded from consideration as income by any statutory prohibition. 
Furthermore, the value of meals or milk to children shall not be 
considered as income to their households for other benefit programs in 
accordance with the prohibitions in section 12(e) of the Richard B. 
Russell National School Lunch Act and section 11(b) of the Child 
Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1760(e) and 1780(b)).

The Income Eligibility Guidelines

    The following are the Income Eligibility Guidelines to be effective 
from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. The Department's guidelines 
for free meals and milk and reduced price meals were obtained by 
multiplying the year 2016 Federal income poverty guidelines by 1.30 and 
1.85, respectively, and by rounding the result upward to the next whole 
dollar.
    This notice displays only the annual Federal poverty guidelines 
issued by the Department of Health and Human Services because the 
monthly and weekly Federal poverty guidelines are not used to determine 
the Income Eligibility Guidelines. The chart details the free and 
reduced price eligibility criteria for monthly income, income received 
twice monthly (24 payments per year); income received every two weeks 
(26 payments per year) and weekly income.
    Income calculations are made based on the following formulas: 
Monthly income is calculated by dividing the annual income by 12; twice 
monthly income is computed by dividing annual income by 24; income 
received every two weeks is calculated by dividing annual income by 26; 
and weekly income is computed by dividing annual income by 52. All 
numbers are rounded upward to the next whole dollar. The numbers 
reflected in this notice for a family of four in the 48 contiguous 
States, the District of Columbia, Guam and the territories represent an 
increase of 0.2 percent over last year's level for a family of the same 
size.

    Authority:  Section 9(b)(1) of the Richard B. Russell National 
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(1)(A)).
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P

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    Dated: March 14, 2016.
Audrey Rowe,
Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2016-06463 Filed 3-22-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-C