• The school has operated fully remote or closed with no instruction due to COVID for at least five consecutive days between Aug.1, 2022-June 30, 2023; OR
• The school has operated a hybrid schedule for all students for at least five consecutive days between Aug. 1, 2022-June 30, 2023; OR
• The student’s assigned school building provides fully in-person instruction between Aug. 1, 2022-June 30, 2023, but has student’s fully remote learning by parent option due to COVID-19; OR
• The school provides fully in-person instruction between Aug. 1, 2022-June 30, 2023 but has at least one student who has stayed home at least five consecutive school days due to COVID-19 or COVID-19 quarantine. In this situation, once one student quarantines due to COVID-19 for at least 5 consecutive school days, any free or reduced-price eligible student quarantining due to COVID-19 for any count of school days moving forward may be submitted for P-EBT. 

Weekends, holidays, school breaks, calamity days not due to COVID or closure due to strikes or other non-COVID related reasons are not included.

Back to Top

• The student does not receive free or reduced-price meals at the school because the school provides fully remote education but the school is not a fully virtual school.
• The student does not receive free or reduced-price meals at the school every day because the school provides hybrid education (for example, a mix of in-person and remote instruction).  
• The student does not receive free or reduced-price meals at the school because the school operates at reduced hours during the day (for example, a student comes to the school building for only three hours per day with no meal service). The school can submit the count of reduced hour days with no meal service for each free or reduced-price student. If the school is providing meals to eat at school, the student is not eligible for P-EBT for these days.   
• The student does not receive free or reduced-price meals at school because the student is quarantined at home for COVID-19. Once one student quarantines due to COVID-19 for at least 5 consecutive school days, any free or reduced-price eligible student quarantining due to COVID-19 for any count of school days moving forward may be submitted for P-EBT.
• Any combination of the above. An example is a school that started the school year providing fully remote learning and switched to hybrid or vice versa. 

Schools must ensure P-EBT benefits are not submitted for students that have graduated or are no longer enrolled in school.    

Back to Top

No, students must have a current 2022-2023 school year free or reduced meal determination on file to be eligible for qualifying PEBT days. Prior year free or reduced-price determinations do not qualify this school year. Any current preschool or students grades K-12 who qualify for free or reduced meals based on a 2022-2023 free and reduced-price household meal application or categorical eligibility may be eligible for P-EBT if they meet the conditions in question two above. A child’s eligibility for free and reduced-price meals for P-EBT purposes can be based on any of the following: 

• Direct certification or other categorical eligibility category (foster, homeless, migrant, runaway or Head Start) for school year 2022-2023; OR
• Certified through a free or reduced-price household meal application for school year 2022-2023; OR
• Enrolled in a Community Eligibility Provision school or school operating under Provision 2 in school year 2022-2023.   

Back to Top

Yes, this 5-consecutive day COVID absence makes the building eligible to submit PEBT, but that student would not be eligible to get PEBT for those days because they are not free or reduced meal eligible.

Back to Top

No. If a household does not follow the required verification deadlines, the students on the application must be switched to denied status in accordance with the school meal programs verification process. Once the students are switched to denied status, the students no longer qualify for P-EBT. For more information about the annual verification process, review section 6 of the US Department of Agriculture Eligibility Manual for School Meals.

Back to Top

For students approved in school year 2022-2023 for free or reduced-price meal benefits, P-EBT benefits start for each qualifying day from the day the student’s application was submitted to the school moving forward. For example, if a student is approved for free meals and their application was submitted to the school on October 1, 2022, the student may receive P-EBT on qualifying days starting October 1 if the school qualified to submit for PEBT based on question one above.

Back to Top

*NEW FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2022-2023* The school or district does not submit the PEBT information for students in this situation. Instead, the US Department of Agriculture is allowing households with students learning fully virtual or in homeschool to apply for benefits independent of their school. More information about the application process is forthcoming.

Back to Top

*NEW FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2022-2023*Households with students attending a fully virtual school or are homeschooled will submit an online application for PEBT benefits. Just like students attending school buildings, virtual or homeschool students must meet the qualifications for free or reduced price meals, even though they do not participate in the school meal program, to potentially receive PEBT. After the eligibility is established, the student must have been enrolled in a traditional school building just prior to the pandemic or in the early years of the pandemic and transitioned to fully virtual or homeschool status due to COVID. The enrollment data will be confirmed with previously attending district. More information about the application instructions is forthcoming.

Back to Top

There will be a monthly collection of P-EBT data starting in December 2022. The data submitted in December will be for August and September combined, October and November. The data collected in January will be for December and so forth. Data corrections for any previous month may be submitted in the current month data submission. The P-EBT data collection will generally open the first business day of the month and close at 4PM the second Thursday of the month.

Back to Top

All districts and schools must submit their data through a secure data submission link sent directly to the districts and schools. All districts and schools eligible to submit P-EBT data have access to the secure portal, even if the schools do not have a relationship with an ITC. A communication with the technical student data submission details will be emailed to the National School Lunch Program food service director registered with the Ohio Department of Education in the Claims Reimbursement and Reporting System (CRRS) and the EMIS coordinator. The message will come from pebt-support@ohio-k12.org, so please alert staff to this. If the food service director or EMIS coordinator is not the desired contact for this service, please notify pebt-support@ohio-k12.org and include the school name, IRN and contact’s name, email and role within the school.

Schools can request assistance from their ITCs. Schools that do not have relationships with ITCs may request assistance by completing the assistance form on the P-EBT portal, calling the helpline at 1-866-244-0071 or emailing support@ohio-k12.org.

Back to Top

Yes. A school must be closed due to COVID, operating at reduced attendance or hours for 5 consecutive days, or have at least one student quarantine due to COVID for 5 or more consecutive days during school year 2022-2023 for a building to be eligible to submit for PEBT benefits. Note that the five consecutive days does not need to be Monday-Friday. Any period of five consecutive school days will qualify, such as Wednesday-Tuesday. See question one for a description of school conditions that qualify a school to submit student data for P-EBT. Once the school meets the minimum five consecutive day threshold, free or reduced-price eligible students are eligible to receive P-EBT benefits for all days they do not attend school in person, including the five consecutive days that establishes eligibility and they do not have access to meal service at the school due to COVID-19.

Back to Top

Yes, if a free or reduced-price eligible student needed to quarantine for at least five consecutive school days, the student would be eligible for all quarantine school days. Further, once one student quarantines due to COVID-19 for at least 5 consecutive school days, any free or reduced-price eligible student quarantining due to COVID-19 for any count of school days moving forward may be submitted for P-EBT, even if it is just one day.

Back to Top

Upon the initial submission, the school will receive a submission report. The submission report will indicate the number of successful records and any student records in error that did not transmit for P-EBT benefits. Student records in error must be corrected by the school and data loaded again. The corrected file can include all students or only corrected students.

Once the funds have been awarded to students, the school will be able to view funded students and the number of days they were funded.

If a school accidently omits a student or reports an incorrect number of days the student should have qualified for the P-EBT benefit, the school may include updated information in the next data collection. Instructions will be sent prior to each data collection. Please note, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is unable to update or change P-EBT benefits over the phone for students accidently omitted, so please do not refer the households to the P-EBT helpline or Ohio Department of Education if the student was accidently omitted.

Back to Top

All schools should inform eligible households of the P-EBT benefit. To inform households of the P-EBT benefit, schools can use any of their typical methods of communication such as email, newsletter or robocall. Additionally, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will send a mailed notice to households regarding the issued P-EBT benefits each month.

Back to Top

If you confirm the student’s information was shared for P-EBT, the household may call the P-EBT helpline at 1-866-244-0071 for questions regarding card activation or address changes. Please ensure the address is changed in school records for subsequent P-EBT data submissions. If the student’s information was accidently omitted from the P-EBT data collection, please let the household know the P-EBT benefit will be corrected in the next data round. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is unable to update or change P-EBT benefits over the phone for students accidently omitted.

Back to Top

School officials may contact the P-EBT helpline at 1-866-244-0071 or submit a support request through the Ohio K12 Help P-EBT Portal.

Back to Top