Supporters tell committee Medicaid direct certification would add thousands of children to free or reduced school meals

CONCORD, N.H. Representative Laura Talerski told the House Education Committee she brought House Bill 583 so families already verified through Medicaid would be directly certified for the national school meals program.

"This bill is not looking to raise the income eligibility for the program," Talerski said. "Itis simply an attempt to help identify students living in poverty who aren't being fed at school." She told the committee Department of Health and Human Services data indicate more children are income-eligible for meals by virtue of Medicaid enrollment than are enrolled in the free and reduced-price program: "For this school year ... 51,380 students that qualify for meals according to their family's income" under Medicaid, while the meals program shows roughly 40,900 enrolled, leaving about "10,005 children who could be eating at school at a free or reduced rate, but they are not."

Why it matters: Witnesses said direct certification would reduce childhood food insecurity, streamline school operations and boost federal reimbursements and state differentiated aid tied to free/reduced counts. Representative Talerski and subsequent witnesses described the change as administrative: families would not need to complete the separate school-meal application if their children already qualify for Medicaid. Talerski emphasized the bill does not change the federal eligibility thresholds: "To qualify for free meals, a family needs to be at or below 130 percent of federal poverty; to qualify for reduced price meals, that limit goes up to 185 percent," she said.

Public- and nonprofit-sector testimony: Testimony included local school principals, hunger-relief organizations and medical experts.

- Zach Sheehan, executive director of the New Hampshire School Funding Fairness Project, framed the bill as part of a package to reduce the local property-tax share for school funding and said low take-up of school meal applications has created undercounts used for funding.

- Stacy Merrifield of the New Hampshire Food Bank and other hunger-advocacy witnesses described food-insecurity data and program benefits: increased participation means fewer unpaid meal accounts, reduced administrative burden, and better academic outcomes.

- Dr. Christine Arseneau, a pediatrician and state chapter officer for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said she had seen families hesitate to enroll and told the committee "Please allow all kids the benefit of a full belly so that they can focus on learning. Vote ought to pass on House Bill 583."

Department and technical questions: Department of Education staff and lawmakers asked technical questions about how Medicaid and USDA direct-certification interoperability would be implemented, and whether the department or HHS would share eligibility data and how parents could opt in or out. Hunger Solutions and DOE witnesses confirmed that 43 other states already do Medicaid direct certification; the Department of Education said the bill would only certify those Medicaid-enrolled children whose income meets the 130/185 percent thresholds used for free and reduced-price meals.

Fiscal considerations and local impacts: Witnesses and committee members discussed the expected fiscal impact. Talerski and other advocates said the immediate administrative cost of adopting direct certification is low; the fiscal note anticipates a larger net cost only because correctly counting more eligible children will raise the free/reduced headcount that drives additional state and federal aid and may increase the differentiated-aid portion of the state formula. Department staff said the fiscal note models the effect of identifying additional eligible students on state aid allocations.

Next steps: Committee members asked several technical follow-ups; supporters urged the committee to move the bill so New Hampshire can join the 43 other states using Medicaid direct certification.