82 FR 17182 - Child Nutrition Programs: Income Eligibility Guidelines

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food and Nutrition Service

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 67 (April 10, 2017)

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, 2017 through June 30, 2018. 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 82, Number 67 (Monday, April 10, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17182-17185]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-07043]


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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, 2017 through June 30, 2018. 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 July 1, 2017.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessica Saracino, 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, 703-305-1620.

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 not 
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 2 CFR part 415).

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, continues to mean 
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

[[Page 17183]]

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, 2017 through June 30, 2018. The Department's guidelines 
for free meals and milk and reduced price meals were obtained by 
multiplying the year 2017 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 1.2 percent over last year's level for a 
family of the same size.

    Authority:  Section 9(b)(1)(A) 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 28, 2017.
Jessica Shahin,
Acting Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture.
[FR Doc. 2017-07043 Filed 4-7-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3410-30-C