Think you're missing out on educational benefits? Complete this application ASAP

MINNEAPOLIS — New numbers from Minnesota's largest school district show more than 1,000 families may be missing out on other benefits that they once had before the state rolled out the new free school meals program.

District leaders are calling it an unintended consequence that has some families now having to pay for things that they might not have in the past.

At school, the benefits could include free or reduced athletic, field trip and busing fees. Outside of the school walls, the benefits could include free tax filing benefits, reduced internet service, food assistance through the WIC program and so much more.

The issue centers around the Application for Educational Benefits, which has been largely known as one of the main ways families could get access to the free and reduced meals at school. There were always other benefits there but potentially lesser known and maybe not as advertised.

Because of this, a number of districts in the metro told WCCO before the school year started they were concerned that families wouldn't fill them out anymore because the meals were billed as "free" this year.

While this is true, the application is also tied to funding schools and districts receive — potentially tens of thousands or millions of dollars depending on the district — for things like hiring teachers and educational materials.

Leaders in the Anoka-Hennepin school district said they put extra focus on getting the word out this year. While most applications are submitted online, the district also sent physical applications to all families this year. They also offered help for families in person by phone to fill out the forms and they also created new advertisements to try and reach as many families as possible.

In the end, the district said it received 1,400 less applications than this time last year.

"I think any help that a family could get, or a guardian could get just from having this application filled out is a benefit," said Noah Atlas, the district's director of child nutrition. "Even if it's $10. It's still a benefit. It's $10 you have for something else you may need whether it be gas or groceries or rent or whatever it may be."

READ MORE: How districts have adjusted since pulling SROs from schools

Atlas also acknowledges a possible reason for the decrease could be that more families are being directly certified through other programs they qualify for, including Medicare, which the state incorporated last year. Families that are directly certified do not have to fill out the Application for Educational Benefits.

Ideally, districts wanted those applications filled out a couple of weeks ago, but the good news is families can still fill them out as there's no true deadline for to get those individual benefits. Schools and districts, however, may not necessarily get the funding benefit because after Oct. 15 is when the process to figure out funding for the following year begins.

State leaders with the Minnesota Department of Education said the rollout is going relatively well this year, but they're already starting to think about how to improve the program for next year.

Minnesota was just the fourth state in the country to roll our free school meals and the leaders said every public school in Minnesota is participating this year.

State leaders said they anticipated this challenged but stand by the name as it was the best way to get as many of the 870,000 Minnesota students to participate as possible.

"I think we knew we had to do additional work and additional help for our schools, but the name of the program it really is to show that this is the free meal because it is," said Emily Honer, the director of nutrition program services at the Minnesota Department of Education. "The free meal and we also wanted to make sure that it was pointed at the schools, the free school meals."

There was money set aside when the free school meals legislation passed in March to help, so schools and districts should be receiving relatively the same amount of funding as they did last year even if less families filled out the applications this year.

State leaders said this helps them to better assess how the program is working and what changes they need to make for next year.
Families are encouraged to reach out to their school for more information on the Application for Educational Benefits.