OTDA is contacting certain Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) school districts to obtain a copy of the “CEP/P2 Income Inquiry From” (also referred to as an “Alternate Income Inquiry”, “Household Income”, or “Family Income” form, and other variations). These forms are used to determine if the child’s household meets the income eligibility guidelines to determine “economically disadvantaged” status for the purposes of State Aid, competitive grants, or other available program services. OTDA must review CEP/P2 forms to determine compliance with Summer EBT application federal requirements.

Most forms are stored on district websites and can be reviewed without any additional effort. However, if the form is not available online, OTDA will email your school for a copy. The emails are personalized to your school and generally sent to the food service director and may come from any one of five or six different Summer EBT OTDA staff. Please see below for the template of what is customized and used.

As per Information Security best practices, there are no links within the email. We ask that the school reply to the email with a copy or link to the form, or let OTDA know if your school does not utilize a CEP/P2 income form. There are no further obligations for schools other than to provide the form (or explain that the district does not use a form) to OTDA. Your staff may also call the person who has sent the email. Mia Mauro (OTDA) Mia.Mauro@otda.ny.gov is the supervisor overseeing the email project.

Students who have an approved lunch application or other documentation acceptable to the federal lunch program should be reported for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL) purposes. The CEP/P2 Income Inquiry Form or other variations of the form is not acceptable to the federal lunch program and cannot be used to identify or report an individual student for FRPL. These students are eligible for FRPL on the date their eligibility is determined (the baseline year only) and are reported with a FRPL start date for that school year.

For districts and schools participating in CEP, actual current FRPL eligibility determinations must be made for BEDS reporting purposes. This can be done by conducting the Direct Certification Matching Process (DCMP) with the Child Nutrition Program (SNAP and Medicaid data).

Public school district and charter school students who have met the eligibility requirements for the federal Reduced-Price-Lunch Program must be reported with a Program Service Code 5806 via the Student Information Repository System (SIRS). Students reported with the 5806 program service code should also be reported with Program Service Code 0198: Poverty-from low-income family. Nonpublic school students who have met the eligibility requirement for the federal Reduced-Price-Lunch Program who are not participating nonpublic schools but are approved NSLP CEP school Recipient Agencies are to report as indicated in the Summer EBT Form (SEBT) 2025 Nonpublic School Guidance via the “Summer EBT 2025 Form” via the IDEx application. Districts and schools may not report all students in a CEP site as “free” (program service code 5817: Free lunch Program) solely because they are attending a CEP participating school.

All public school districts, charter schools, and nonpublic schools should be reporting a student as economically disadvantage (or Poverty – from low-income family) to determine which cohort members should be included in the economically disadvantaged group for district and school accountability. If one student in a family is identified as low income, all students from that household (economic unit) may be identified as low income. Although nonpublic schools do not participate in district and school accountability, they should identify economically disadvantage students to ensure equitable access to educational opportunities and resources, and to address potential disparities in academic outcomes. This identification allows schools to tailor support and interventions to meet the specific needs of these students. For the purposes of SEBT, identification of economically disadvantaged students allows for equitable access to SEBT benefits.

An economically disadvantaged student is a student who participates in or whose family participates in, economic assistance programs, such as:

The Free-or-Reduced-Price Lunch Programs as per the NYSED’s Office of Child Nutrition Program Administration for federal guidelines
Social Security Insurance (SSI)
Food Stamps
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Foster Care
Refugee Assistance (cash or medical assistance)
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)
Safety Net Assistance (SNA)
Bureau of Indian Affairs or
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANIF)

School Income Form Template

Good day,

I am reaching out to you from the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), Summer EBT Bureau.

We are currently preparing for the 2025 summer benefit program and are hoping you can assist us in obtaining a specific form to facilitate the streamlined certification of children in your district. Specifically, the household income information form also known as an alternative income form.

If your district is collecting this data on a CEP form, or similar, please provide us with this form by replying to this email and attaching the form or the link to the form you use. Additionally, if you are not collecting this data from families on a form in your district, and are using other methods, please reply with how you are collecting income information for your students.

Your timely response will help to ensure that we can provide Summer EBT benefits to all eligible children in New York State.

We appreciate your assistance in this matter.