School Year 2021-2022 Income Eligibility Verification Forms

For the 2021-2022 school year, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is allowing local educational agencies (LEAs) to update the students’ Economically Disadvantaged indicator until the PEIMS Fall Resubmission closes on January 20, 2022. Therefore, LEAs can continue to try to obtain income eligibility verification forms (or other means of verifying eligibility, including the use of locally developed income verification surveys or other categorical sources of eligibility) for students past the PEIMS Fall snapshot date, however, the student must be determined to be eligible on or before October 29, 2021. Please remember that, although the agency is providing this extension, LEAs cannot count students as economically disadvantaged for purposes of the PEIMS Fall submission if those students were not enrolled as of the snapshot date. Also, this extension only applies to the collection of forms or other eligibility documentation associated with the Economically Disadvantaged indicator; the extension does not apply to any other PEIMS Fall data elements.

For Title I, Part A purposes, please note that the use of the income eligibility verification forms or other means of verifying eligibility, including the use of locally developed income verification surveys or other categorical sources of eligibility are acceptable for documenting and reporting Title I, Part A low-income numbers if they replicate National School Lunch Program, Medicaid, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families data.

For any LEAs who have implemented the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) for the 2021-2022 school year, while the distribution of the school meal household form is not required, LEAs do need to make the form available and encourage parents to complete the form, as school funding and other programs are directly impacted, such as the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program. Schools are encouraged to inform parents of virtual students of the requirement that a student must have eligibility for the National School Lunch Program documented by their school to be eligible for P-EBT. In order for LEAs and students to benefit from funding and programs, TEA is encouraging LEAs to ensure the school meal application income eligibility verification forms have been made available to all parents.  

On August 19, 2021, TEA and the Texas Department of Agriculture held a joint webinar covering Compensatory Education Funding and Free-Reduced Price Meal Applications and the impact of the income eligibility verification forms. Additionally, information related to the P-EBT program can be found on the Health and Human Services website.