Baltimore County Public Schools weighs CEP costs

Baltimore County Public Schools in Towson, Md., is considering offering universal free meals through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), Baltimore Sun reports.

Advocates in the community are asking for universal free meals to be provided to students at 19 schools in the district. School officials, however, worry that they will lose state aid and federal funding if they take that route.

The district currently uses family income information to provide free and reduced-price meals to 50,000 Baltimore County students. The income information is also used to obtain state funding for scholarships, field trips and more.

If it began offering meals via the CEP, the district would instead use census poverty data as well as information on which families are receiving public assistance. Through this method, officials say that fewer families who are eligible for services would be documented, costing the district an estimated $1 million to cover meals for students whom the government does not identify as poor, but who can still not afford full-price meals.

Read the full story via baltimoresun.com.

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