BATON ROUGE, LA- In anticipation of federal approval of Louisiana’s Summer Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) program, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Louisiana Department of Education are asking parents who qualify for, but do not currently receive, free or reduced-price lunches to apply for those benefits with their schools or school districts by Friday, July 30, 2021.
Students who are already receiving free or reduced-priced lunches do not need to apply. This includes any student in a school that provides free meals to all students (under a special rule called “Community Eligibility Provision”). This program only applies to students who receive free or reduced-price lunch under the National School Lunch Program or because they attend a CEP school.
DCFS expects to provide more information about the Summer P-EBT program and the P-EBT program for 0-5 age students on SNAP when those programs are approved.
To date, DCFS has issued approximately $192.2 million in P-EBT benefits for 515,624 students for the months of August 2020-January 2021. The third payment, covering February-May 2021, is scheduled to begin loading onto cards on August 4.
More information about P-EBT is available at www.pebt-la.org.
