The school I work at is 93% free/reduced price lunch. Only 2 of my 33 students brought in any school supplies and only one of them could afford to pay the $7 fee for our field trip. Only a handful of them have crayons, glue sticks, etc at home and only 3 or 4 of them have a family car. They don't go to the library b/c it is too far to walk and the bus fare is too much. We don't have a librarian at our school so nobody can check books out of the library. Everyone gets free breakfast. This is what makes kids show up to school on time/at all. We just had a dentist visit us and gave out free toothbrushes. Some of the kids didn't want to put them in their lockers because they were afraid they would lose them. Many of them don't have their "own" toothbrush. It is another world right here around us.

One thing to keep in mind, families have to reapply each year. At the beginning of the school year, the forms are made available, and you turn them into the school's administrative office. (Exact procedure may vary, depending on the school.)
I'd also just like to add that the school does a great job regarding privacy. Nobody knows who is receiving free and reduced rate instead of paying full rate. Everyone punches in a student number at the register. Either parents loaded money into the account or it's free, but there's no way to know just by going through the line which is which.

A lot of young families with one parent enlisted and overseas and other parent at home with young (i.e. kindergarten ) children will qualify for reduce or free lunch.

I am glad to finally hear someone broach the subject of poverty in our region. Among all the discussion of great schools, accomplished children, extracurricular activities and so on; we almost never discuss that Fairfax County, Arlington County, Loudon County, Alexandria City are home to an increasingly large population of children living at or near the poverty level. It is important to discuss and address their academic needs as well.

PP, if u read, you notice that someone said FARMS doesn't necessarily mean poor, and I was just correcting that.

Anonymous wrote:Free lunch generally means poor. I have yet to meet anyone with means whose kids get a free lunch.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/notices/iegs/IEG_Table-032913.pdf

The link

Here's the sliding scale link. A family of 4 making 43k qualifies for reduced lunch, whereas a family of 4 making 30k qualifies for free lunch.

Free lunch generally means poor. I have yet to meet anyone with means whose kids get a free lunch.

Unfortunately, no. Poverty levels are used to determine the eligibility, and that is occasionally adjusted, but it's the same for the whole country.

Anonymous wrote:How do you find the poverty level for a particular area? I looked and all I can find are general examples.

It looks like its the same for basically the whole country. Do they not figure in the COL for an area?

How do you find the poverty level for a particular area? I looked and all I can find are general examples.

Not necessarily. There's a sliding scale.

I know that free lunch is a metric that many seem to use when judging a school. Our zoned elementary school is about 25% free/reduced lunch students.

How does a family qualify for reduced/free lunch? Does this mean poverty?