Encourage families to complete their school’s benefits form

August 24, 2023

The new voter-created Healthy School Meals for All program kicks off this school year in most public schools across Colorado, and it’s still important for families to complete their school’s benefits form or application. It impacts students and their families, school funding, and local communities.

Whether it’s called school, meal, community, or educational benefits, the single-page form asks families to share household income, along with race and ethnicity data. Collecting this information allows your local school to maximize state and federal funding. It also helps students qualify for school-related fee waivers like SAT/ACT testing, athletics, band, field trips, and other activities. Only one form is required for all students in the household and should only take 5-15 minutes to complete.

Here’s what families don’t need to worry about: Immigration, migrant, citizenship, or refugee status is not required when completing the form. Provided income information is strictly confidential and protected. Plus, completing this form does not impact eligibility for school meals. All public school students are eligible for no-cost meals if their school and district participate in the Healthy School Meals for All program.

Beth Wallace, executive director for Food and Nutrition Services at Jefferson County Public Schools, recently shared the importance with CBS4, "The meal benefit application is so important because so many other educational things are tied to that application. Schools get additional educational dollars based on those applications. On top of that families can have reduced fees."

Access the outreach toolkit and other resources from the Colorado Department of Education to help communicate about school benefit forms and the new meal program.

Know any parents or caregivers with questions about Healthy School Meals for All? Check out Colorado Public Radio’s Q&A about school meals and what to expect this year.