The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 has enabled public schools across the nation to provide all students free meals since the COVID-19 pandemic first disrupted K-12 education in March of 2020. The free school meal benefits will expire after the last school day of the 2021-2022 school year.

What does this mean for families? 

In the fall of 2022, meals will return to paid-for status. Families will need to pay full price for student meals or fill out an application to qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Carry-Over:

At this time, we do not know if there will be any carry-over of the free eligibility to give families time to submit applications, or even free and reduced eligibility from 2021/2022 or previous years.

Free and reduced-price meal applications for the 2022-2023 school year cannot be completed or approved until after July 1, 2022.