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The Linn-Mar Community School District agrees to participate in the National School Breakfast/Lunch Program, to receive commodities donated by the USDA, and accepts responsibility for providing either free or reduced price meals to eligible children in the schools under its jurisdiction.
The School Food Authority assures the Child Nutrition Programs Division that the school system will uniformly implement the following policy to determine the children’s eligibility for free and reduced price meals in all National School Breakfast/Lunch Program schools under its jurisdiction. In fulfilling its responsibilities, the School Nutrition Authority:
- Agrees to serve meals free to children from families whose income is at or below that qualifying them for free meals.
- Agrees to serve meals at a maximum reduced price at or below the maximum amount allowed by regulations to children from families whose income is at or below that qualifying them for reduced price meals.
- Agrees to provide these benefits to foster children and to children from families who are experiencing strikes, layoffs, and unemployment which cause the family’s income to fall within qualifying limits.
- Agrees that there will be no physical segregation of, nor any other discrimination against, any child because of inability to pay the full price of meals. The names of the children eligible to receive either free or reduced price meals will not be published, posted, or announced in any manner and there will not be overt identification of any such children by use of special tokens, tickets, or any other means. Further assurance is given that children eligible for either free or reduced price meals shall not be required to:
- Work for meals
- Use a separate lunchroom
- Go through a separate serving line
- Enter the lunchroom through a separate entrance
- Eat meals at a different time
- Eat meals different from those sold to children paying full price
- Agrees that in the operation of child nutrition programs no child will be discriminated against because of age, color creed, national origin, race, religion, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical attributes, genetic information, physical or mental ability or disability, ancestry, political party preference, political belief, military status, socioeconomic status, pregnancy, or familial status.
- Agrees to establish and use a fair hearing procedure for parental appeals of the school’s decisions on applications and for school officials’ challenges to the correctness of information contained in an application or to the continued eligibility of any child for either free or reduced price meals. During the appeal and hearing process, the child will continue to receive free or reduced price meals. A record of all appeals and challenges and their dispositions will be retained for three years.
Prior to initiating the hearing procedure, the parent or school official may request a conference to provide an opportunity to discuss the situation, present information, and obtain an explanation of data submitted in the application and decisions rendered. Such a conference will not in any way prejudice or diminish the right to a fair hearing. The hearing procedure will provide the following:
- A publicly announced, simple method for making an oral or written request for a hearing.
- An opportunity to be assisted or represented by an attorney or other person.
- An opportunity to examine, prior to and during the hearing, the documents and records presented to support the decision under appeal.
- Reasonable promptness and convenience in scheduling a hearing and adequate notice as to the time and place of the hearing.
- An opportunity to present oral or documentary evidence and arguments supporting its position without undue influence.
- An opportunity to question or refute any testimony, or other evidence, and to confront and cross examine any adverse witnesses.
- The hearing be conducted, and the decision made, by a hearing official who did not participate in the decision under appeal or in any previous conference.
- The parties concerned, and any designated representative thereof, be notified in writing of the decision of the hearing official.
- For each hearing a written record be prepared; including the decision under appeal, any documentary evidence and summary of any oral testimony presented at the hearing, the decision of the hearing official and reasons therefore, and a copy of the notification to the parties concerned of the hearing official’s decision.
- Such written record be preserved for a period of three years and be available for examination by the parties concerned, or their representatives, at any reasonable time and place during such period.
- Agrees to designate the Manager of Nutrition Services* for the Linn-Mar Community School District (3556 Winslow Road, Marion, IA 52302) as the determining official who will review applications and make determinations of eligibility. The official will use the criteria outlined in this policy to determine which individual children are eligible for either free or reduced price meals.
- Agrees to develop and send to each child’s parent a letter as outlined herein, including an application for either free or reduced price meals, at the beginning of each school year and whenever there is a change in eligibility criteria.
On an annual basis, parents will need to complete the application and return it to the determining official (Nutrition Services Manager) for review. Such applications and documentation of action taken will be maintained for three years after the end of the fiscal year to which they pertain.
Applications may be filed at any time during the year. Any parent enrolling a child in a school for the first time at any time during the year will be supplied with such documents. If a child transfers from one school to another under the jurisdiction of the same School Food Authority, eligibility for either free or reduced price meals will be transferred to, and honored by, the receiving school. All children from a family will receive the same benefits. Within 10 working days of receipt of applications, parents/guardians will be notified individually, in writing, of the acceptance or denial of their applications. Children will be served meals immediately upon the establishment of their eligibility.
When an application is rejected, parents will be informed of the reason for denial and of the hearing procedure. The designated hearing official is the Superintendent of Schools* (3556 Winslow Road, Marion, IA 52302). *Must be different people.
- Agrees to submit to the news media, local employment offices, and major employers contemplating or experiencing large layoffs the public release, which is attached.
- Agrees to collect racial and ethnic data on all applicants for free and reduced price benefits and keep this information on file for the processed applications.
The following attachments are adopted with and considered part of the preceding policies. Should the School Food Authority wish to develop its own format for any of these attachments, it must be certain that all essential elements are retained, and all meanings remain obvious and correctly presented in any such modifications.
- Attachment A: Income guidelines for free and reduced price meals
- Attachment B: Sample letter to parents/guardians
- Attachment C: Application form
- Attachment D: Sample notification form
- Attachment E: Public release
- Attachment F: Collection procedures
Attachments A through F are reviewed annually by the Chief Financial/Operating Officer of the Linn-Mar Community School District. Attachments A, B, and C are published annually in the district’s back to school booklet found on the district website: www.Linnmar.k12.ia.us.
Adopted: 6/70
Reviewed: 9/11; 10/12; 4/15; 8/17; 11/18; 9/21; 2/24
Revised: 10/10; 11/13; 4/16; 9/24