LM June-July 2022_hi

From the beginning, AASA has partnered with numerous organizations in DC at a national level to push Congress to extend these waivers. We’re still facing critical challenges across the country, and we still need these waivers from the beginning. Honestly, Democrats were very supportive in March after it wasn’t included in the Fiscal Year 22 package. What we were hearing from Republicans in both the House and the Senate was that they understood the need for increased reimbursement for flexibilities because of the supply chain. However, they could not get on board with the seamless summer option. They thought that this was just an effort to extend universal free school meals. The way we got to this was because we eventually got this compromise, where there wasn’t the extension of the universal school meals, but we had the extension of all of the other flexibilities that schools still need. The other takeaway, honestly, is what was not included in the bill. The bill does not extend what was essentially universal school meals. The seamless summer option waiver that was available for the past two years that allowed schools to serve all students at no charge and receive that free reimbursement rate was not extended. As a result, moving forward, schools are going to have to return to that free and reduced-price lunch model. Howdid this legislation come together? Q Tobe clear, it looks likewe’regoingback to three categoriesagain–free lunches, reducedpriceand full-price lunches? Q A

I can’t give specific numbers yet because we don’t know. The reimbursement rates are adjusted to reflect inflation basically on the Consumer Price Index, so it will increase either way. What the Keep Kids Fed Act does is it will take those reimbursement rates and then add 40 cents to every lunch reimbursement rate and then 15 cents to every breakfast reimbursement rate. When you’re thinking about in comparison to what schools are going to receive next year to what they received before the pandemic—it will absolutely be more. However, when you think about what schools are going to receive next school year in comparison to during the pandemic—it will, unfortunately, be less. Thisquestionmight be tough toanswer becauseyoudon’t knowtheexact rates. Areschool districtsgoing tobe able tobreakevenwith the revised reimbursement rates, orwill theybe operatingmeal programsat a loss? I can’t answer that exactly because every district is different. Some districts get a slightly different reimbursement rate depending on what percentage of your students qualify. We’ve been saying that the reimbursement rates aren’t enough to serve these healthy meals, so I think it’s going to be challenging to break even. Doweknowwhat the reimbursement done for two years. We know it’s going to be really challenging, but it’s going to be important to have as many families as possible fill those out. We are a little worried that some students are going to fall through the cracks because some families have never filled these forms out. At the last minute there was opposition for this provision from Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, and they had to take it out in order to get it passed before the expiration date of the waivers on June 30. This means that school districts are going to have to return to collecting those free and reduced- price lunch forms, which a lot of them haven’t

rates for next school yearwill be? Q

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Yeah, we are. What was really disappointing to a lot of advocates on Capitol Hill was the original version of the Keep Kids Fed Act actually included a provision that, for the next school year, kids who qualified normally for reduced price lunch would actually receive free lunch. We thought that this was a really critical thing to provide support to those families who are kind of on the cusp. As we know, it’s not just schools that are dealing with these increased costs. It’s families and everyone across the country.

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13 LM Summer 2022 continued...