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Committee debates Medicaid direct certification and meal-debt policy; amendment removes state buyout of meal debt
Summary
DOHHS and DOE said Medicaid software can support a parental opt-in checkbox and transmit directly certified students to DOE; staff estimated about 10,000 additional FRPL students and a possible FY-28 adequacy cost impact of about $50M if no transitional hold were used.
The House Education Committee spent the afternoon on several measures tied to school meals and eligibility documentation, focusing on a Department of Education proposal to pursue Medicaid direct certification (MDC) for free and reduced price meals and a companion bill to ban practices the committee described as "shaming" students with unpaid meal balances.
Lede: Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education staff told the committee technical barriers to MDC are solvable: the state's Medicaid application system can add an opt-in checkbox and transmit qualifying data to the Department of Education in a machine-readable form.
Nut graf: MDC would identify additional students eligible for USDA free and reduced-price meals without a separate household form. The committee heard estimates that MVC could add roughly 10,000–11,000 students to the FRPL rolls, a change that the department estimated could raise adequacy grant obligations by roughly $50 million per year…
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