Severe Need Breakfast Reimbursement in the SBP

This management bulletin (MB) supersedes guidance issued in MB SNP-03-2016, Severe Need Breakfast Reimbursement in the School Breakfast Program (SBP). Severe need breakfast reimbursement is a higher rate of reimbursement for breakfasts served under the SBP. Schools eligible for severe need breakfast reimbursement are defined as those schools that served at least 40 percent free and reduced-price (F/RP) National School Lunch Program (NSLP) lunches two school years prior, or schools that operated the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) during the second preceding school year, with an individual approved identified student percentage (ISP) of 25 percent or more.

Severe Need Breakfast Reimbursement Eligibility Criteria

Existing sites participating in the SBP that served at least 40 percent F/RP lunches two school years prior and existing sites that operated CEP with an individual approved ISP of 25 percent or more two school years prior are automatically eligible for severe need breakfast reimbursement through the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System (CNIPS). New school sites that are approved to operate the CEP with an approved individual ISP of 25 percent or more are also automatically eligible for severe need breakfast reimbursement through the CNIPS.

Standard counting and claiming sites that are not automatically eligible as described above can qualify for severe need reimbursement if they did not serve lunches under the NSLP two years prior and can demonstrate serving at least 40 percent or more lunches to children eligible for F/RP meals in the first three reimbursement claiming periods of the current school year. To qualify, school food authorities (SFA) must submit a Severe Need Breakfast Reimbursement Request form to the California Department of Education (CDE).

The following section describes the required steps and timeline for the SFA to submit a Severe Need Breakfast Reimbursement Request for an eligible school site.

Severe Need Reimbursement Requests

In the event an SBP participating site is not automatically eligible for the additional severe need breakfast reimbursement, the SFA must submit a Severe Need Reimbursement Request (CNIPS Form SNP-08) for CDE approval. Requests will only be considered if one of the following applies:

• The SFA has a new school site and therefore does not have a two-year lunch history to qualify for severe need reimbursement automatically.
  
  
• The SFA has an existing school with a high percentage of students eligible for F/RP meals but does not have NSLP claiming history or an individual approved ISP of 25 percent or more from two years prior. For example, an existing site in the CNIPS did not operate or submit NSLP lunch meal claims two years prior.
  

Note: Sites that operated CEP with an individual ISP less than 25 percent two years prior and new sites approved for CEP cannot use this form to establish severe need with claiming data.

SFAs must use Form SNP-08 located in the Download Forms section of the CNIPS to demonstrate that the school claimed at least 40 percent F/RP lunches in the first three reimbursement claiming periods of the current school year. If SFAs submit Form SNP-08 during the fourth claiming period of the school year, the CDE may retroactively approve severe need breakfast reimbursement for these schools to encompass the first three claiming periods. For example, if August, September, and October are the first three claiming periods of the school year, the SFA must submit the request for severe need reimbursement during the month of November (the fourth claiming period). However, if SFAs operate 10 days or fewer in August and choose to combine their August and September claims, they must submit Form SNP-08 during the month of December, which is the fourth claiming period in this instance. SFAs that submit the form after the fourth claiming period will receive severe need breakfast reimbursement starting the month the CDE receives an approvable request.

The CDE will not review or approve severe need breakfast reimbursement requests that SFAs submit before the fourth claiming period of the operational year. School days during July designated by the SFA as summer school for the prior school year are not counted toward the first three claiming periods.

Send completed SNP-08 forms to your assigned School Nutrition Program (SNP) County Specialist. A list of SNP Specialists is available in the Download Forms section of the CNIPS, Form ID Caseload.

SFAs must annually qualify for severe need breakfast reimbursement at each eligible site. SFAs without a two-year history must annually submit Form SNP-08 for each school approved through the process defined in this MB, until each school establishes the required two year NSLP claiming history. In subsequent years, Form SNP-08 is not necessary as long as the school served 40 percent or more lunches to children eligible for F/RP meals. The school will continue to qualify based on the second preceding year’s lunch history, which the CNIPS will automatically calculate and populate into the appropriate data fields.

Severe Need Breakfast Reimbursement for CEP Sites

If the school operated CEP during the second preceding school year, the individual school’s approved ISP must be used to determine eligibility for severe need reimbursements. The individual school’s ISP from the second preceding year multiplied by 1.6 must be at least 40 percent to qualify for severe need reimbursement in the SBP. If a school uses the same ISP for four consecutive school years, the same ISP would be used to determine eligibility for severe need for four consecutive years. Schools participating in CEP as part of a group may not use the group ISP to determine eligibility for severe need reimbursement.

If a new school adopts CEP with an approved individual ISP of 25 percent or more, the new school’s approved individual ISP can be used to determine eligibility for severe need reimbursement without waiting for the first three months of claims, as is required in the steps above. In the event a previously approved CEP site splits into one or more sites within a CEP group, and no longer has an approved ISP on file, the SFA must contact the assigned SNP County Specialist.

Severe Need Reimbursement Process

Once a site is approved for severe need breakfast reimbursement, site claims in the CNIPS will be populated with a new SBP Severe Need Reimbursement section. The SFA must enter all eligible meals in this section to receive the higher reimbursement rate.

If a site has been approved retroactively, the SFA must create a revision for all previously submitted site claims to receive the higher reimbursement rate. Each site claim revision must zero out all Basic Breakfast meal counts for the month and move them to the SBP Severe Need Reimbursement section.

Basic breakfast reimbursement and severe need breakfast reimbursement are paid from two separate funding sources. Therefore, if the approval for severe need reimbursement results in the SFA no longer having any sites eligible for the basic breakfast rate, the CDE will send the SFA an invoice for any funds the CDE paid the SFA at the basic breakfast rate for the retroactive period. However, the CDE will offset the funds owed from the basic breakfast rate with severe need reimbursement from future claims.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact your county’s SNP Specialist. A list of SNP Specialists is available in the Download Forms section of the CNIPS, Form ID Caseload.

If you have any questions about meal reimbursement claims, please contact your agency’s assigned Nutrition Claims Analyst. A directory of these analysts can be found on the CDE Nutrition Services web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/nt/.