Private School P-EBT Data Collection Application
The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the California Department of Education (CDE), in a joint effort, are administering the federal Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program. Under this program, students eligible for Free or Reduced-Priced Meals (FRPM) under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or School Breakfast Program (SBP) are eligible to receive funds to support food and grocery purchases during the last three months of the school year. Eligible students attending public schools are identified for participation in the program through data that local educational agencies (LEAs) submit to the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) administered by the CDE. The CDSS then administers the distribution of the benefit.
In order to enable eligible students attending private schools to receive P-EBT benefits, the CDE has implemented the Private School P-EBT data collection application(XLSX). In order to enable students attending your schools to receive benefits under the P-EBT program, the CDE is requesting that your agency provide a list of FRPM eligible children at your school sites. In an effort to expedite the issuance of P-EBT benefits for these children, the CDE will share the lists of eligible children with the CDSS and P-EBT cards will be issued directly to these families. These families will not need to submit an online application for P-EBT.
Data Collection
In about a week, the CDE will send a link to the Private School P-EBT Data Collection application. The application will be open for data submission until approximately June 24, 2020. The exact deadline will be shared when the online application becomes available. A user name and password to access the application will follow in a separate email to the Food Service Director contact the CDE has on file in the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System.
During the completion of the online Private School P-EBT Data Collection application, Program Operators will be asked to submit a list of your FRPM eligible students using the attached Excel template. You must provide your school’s County-District-School (CDS) code, the student’s first and last name, the student’s date of birth, and a current mailing address.
A current mailing address is critical so that P-EBT cards reach eligible children effectively.
In addition, you must provide the student’s FRPM eligibility date. For students who are directly certified, the eligibility date is the date that they were first identified as directly certified for the 2019– 20 school year. For students who submitted a meal application, the date would be the day that your agency certified the student for FRPM benefits.
Schools are encouraged to process all newly received meal applications prior to submitting this list to the CDE. In order to provide ample time to process these P-EBT benefits, only one file submission will be allowed per agency. Once you have completed the application and have successfully submitted your eligibility file, you will be locked out of the application.
When uploading the FRPM eligible list, your agency will be required to attest to the accuracy of the data: “I certify that the data submitted is accurate and complete. All students on this list were eligible for participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)/School Breakfast Program through direct certification, by an approved NSLP application, or other means provided by the program.”
Resources
The following links provide more information about P-EBT:
- The phase two outreach toolkit is available now on the CDSS P-EBT webpage
. Outreach materials are available in English, Spanish, and Chinese. - For a list of Frequently Asked Questions related to P-EBT, please visit the CDE Pandemic EBT Frequently Asked Questions web page.
Contact Information
For more information about P-EBT, you may visit the CDSS P-EBT web page.
.Families that require assistance with their P-EBT card can call the P-EBT Customer Service Center at 877-328-9677.
For updated information about COVID-19 emergency feeding, please visit the CDE COVID-19 School and Child and Adult Day Care Meals web page. This page is updated each Friday with new information.
Questions: Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609
