Free & Reduced Information

Additional Benefits

If you are enrolled in the Free and Reduced Benefits Program you are eligible for other financial benefits.Check with your school for reduced or waved fees for:

Who is Eligible?

  • Low-income children are eligible to receive reduced-price or free meals at school. 
  • Children in households with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty level or those receiving SNAP or TANF qualify for free meals. 
  • Those with family incomes between 130 and 185 percent of the poverty line qualify for reduced-price meals.  

Important to Know

  • Families must reapply every year. 
  • Families who had meal benefits last year have a 30-day grace period to apply for this year before students will be removed.
  • Families are responsible for all purchases until applications are processed and qualified for benefits.
  • Families can use PaySchools to make online meal payments, set up low-balance alerts, and track student purchases. 
  • Reduced meal co-pays are covered by the state of Colorado, making the meals no cost for qualifying students (K-12) 

Why is it important to utilize this resource?

Under Title I-A, the allocation of funds to schools, eligibility to operate certain programs, and accountability requirements are based in part on identifying students from low-income families. Historically, this has been achieved by using National School Lunch Program (NSLP) eligibility data.  

The Title I-A program is authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and was last reauthorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95) in 2015. Title I-A grants provide supplementary educational and related services to low-achieving and other students attending pre-kindergarten through grade 12 schools with relatively high concentrations of students from low-income families. There are also a number of accountability requirements that states, local educational agencies (LEAs), and schools must meet to receive Title I-A funds.

The number and percentage of a school’s enrolled students from low-income families are used when LEAs allocate Title I-A grants to schools to determine whether a school is eligible to use its Title I-A funds to operate specific programs. Additionally, schools need to identify which of their students are from low-income families to comply with certain accountability policies. Eligibility for free or reduced-price school benefits is commonly used as an indicator of low-income status for all of these purposes.