The program, known as Pandemic-EBT or P-EBT, gives households about $5.70 per day for every school day missed. When Congress created Pandemic-EBT in the first major coronavirus stimulus package in March, lawmakers did not foresee how long the current crisis would last. Once school districts have the lists of eligible students, that information has to be transferred over to the state agencies that administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, still known to many as food stamps. “This is the latest in a series of really frustrating decisions — at every turn recently they have been very keen on returning everything back to normal. Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) Extended to 8/31. ... Springfield, IL 62763-9138. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) launched the Pandemic EBT to provide nutritional resources to families who have lost access to free or reduced-price school meals due to school closures. States were able to figure out who should get the payments in the spring and summer, when schools nationwide were fully closed for in-person learning. The money is distributed exactly like food stamps — on debit-like EBT cards. “It’s too late to comply with their new directive,” Gordon said. Pennsylvania intended to get benefits to the students in low-income schools that were doing virtual-only learning, leaving off hybrid-option schools, because officials said they didn’t have the time or the data to reach all students before the program lapsed. If you apply for May, you will receive benefits for 21 school days in May, or $119.70. Two weeks ahead of the deadline to get the last tranche of the money out, only nine states have been approved: Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia. You will receive a P-EBT LINK card in the mail with instructions on how to set up a PIN and use the card. Congress created the program earlier this year to help make up for free and subsidized meals that children were missing while schools were either shut down or virtual due to coronavirus. The USDA’s change in policy means they are not able to issue any Pandemic-EBT benefits to students this month. With the program now set to expire in less than two weeks, anti-hunger advocates are trying to ramp up pressure on Congress to extend the program through the end of the school year. The deadline to apply for P-EBT has recently been extended to August 31st. Applications will be available in paper form as well as through the ABE Online Application portal. P-EBT provides financial assistance to families with school aged children. P-EBT is also available for June. With stimulus talks seemingly dead for now, advocates are asking lawmakers to include an extension of P-EBT in any short term spending package. If they are on the program, the benefits can be directly loaded on their EBT card. “Congress needs to act,” said Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out of school programs at the Food Research & Action Center. “We are very frustrated,” said Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Families who received the first tranche of payments in the spring or summer spent it almost immediately, and Census data showed that child hunger rates dropped markedly in the week after the benefits started going out in each state. Families will receive money on a new or existing EBT card to help fill the school meals gap. The following states have been approved to operate a Pandemic EBT program. But now, as some schools re-open with a mix of virtual and in-person classes, the Agriculture Department says states must also tackle the complex job of figuring out how many days each student is not physically in school and distribute the aid to all who are spending all or part of their weeks learning virtually. President Donald Trump and Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19. USDA did not answer questions from POLITICO about how many other states have submitted plans to issue more Pandemic-EBT aid. Another student may be learning remotely all five days. That decision came the first week of September, too late for many state agencies to determine who’s eligible before the money runs out on Sept. 30. Officials at USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service finally told states in late August that they could go ahead and plan for another set of payments. A single family with multiple children might have students in all different setups. But schools are still widely disrupted. If you qualify for SNAP, you will get an Illinois Link card. At first, USDA suggested it was acceptable for states to issue benefits only to students in districts where all instruction was virtual because of the extremely short time frame to determine who qualified. Using Census Bureau data, the researchers could see that the week after P-EBT benefits were issued in a particular state, the rate of children not getting enough to eat dropped by 30 percent. How Do I Get My P-EBT Benefits? But officials were informed of the change in policy on Friday Sept. 4, the afternoon before the Labor Day weekend. P-EBT provides the value of school meals at the free rate for each eligible child in the household, for a total of $5.70 per child per school day. “They opened the door and then they closed the door — and the result is leaving tens of thousands of kids in Michigan without food.”. “That suggests to me that this was a pretty important infusion of cash,” said Bauer. That last-minute decision sent states scrambling. The program, known as Pandemic-EBT or P-EBT, gives households about $5.70 per day for every school day missed. If so, you can still apply for Pandemic EBT (P-EBT), which will provide you with financial assistance! But there simply isn't time to do so under USDA’s new directive, officials told POLITICO. Millions of low-income children are likely to miss out on special benefits that help their families buy groceries this month because the Trump administration has imposed eligibility requirements that prevent some states from getting the payments out before the money expires. SNAP helps low income people buy the food they need for good nutritional health. The money is distributed exactly like food stamps — on debit-like EBT cards. But we all know the world is not back to normal.”. Over the spring and summer, some states were issuing hundreds of thousands of new cards to households that had never before used a government EBT card. About a week later, however, officials at USDA changed their mind and said that this simpler option was not going to be allowed. A program that helps families buy groceries is set to expire at the end of the month. Does your family have school aged children? Anti-hunger advocates worry the loss of extra payments for food will further exacerbate childhood hunger rates, which are already at the highest levels the country has seen in decades. Then, they check to see if the families are already on SNAP. The aid can only be used to buy food. Learn more about SNAP The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services had planned to issue $93 per student to the families of more than 100,000 kids across the state that they know qualify for free and reduced lunch and whose districts are conducting virtual classes. The multiple school district setups — all virtual, all in-person or hybrid of the two — has made the program much more complicated than it was when the vast majority of schools were shut down. Illinois has developed a simplified application, Illinois Application for Pandemic Supplemental Nutrition Assistance for Children Receiving Free or Reduced School Lunches (Form 5235), for P-EBT benefits for Non-SNAP households. The logistics of reaching all eligible kids — including those in schools doing a mix of in-person and online instruction — are so complicated that several states say they will be unable to get aid to any of qualifying schoolchildren this month. “We need to make sure the benefits are available for September, but it’s going to be a really long school year for families if their children are learning remotely.

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