Do you need to make the determination of a student's free/reduced lunch status but are unsure where to start? jmc provides an intuitive and efficient solution for determining eligibility for free or reduced-price meals based on federal guidelines. With just a few simple steps, users can input household size and income for one or two earners, and the eligibility result is instantly displayed. No manual calculations are required, saving time and reducing errors.

Let's determine if a family qualifies for free/reduced-price benefits. Log in to jmc Office and navigate to Lunch > Free/Reduced > Determine Free or Reduced Status.

Step One: Enter the size of the household in the "Household Size" field to record the number of members in the household.

Step Two: Enter the income amount(s) in the appropriate "Income" field(s) for up to two earners to have them added up for qualification requirements.

Step Three: Click the "Calculate" button to determine if the household will receive free meals, reduced-price meals, or is not eligible for meal benefits.

Fun Fact: Upon calculating a family's household income, the "Eligible For" field displays an eligibility determination, along with income cutoff information, indicating in real time whether the applicant qualifies for free or reduced benefits.

Step Four: Select the family from the "Contact List" field by entering their last name in the "Find" field.

Helpful Tip: The dependents for that contact will then display in the "Student List" informing you of students affected with a change in free or reduced status.

Step Five: Enter the date of the status change in the "Status Effective Date" field or simply click the calendar icon to apply a family's free or reduced status change to the selected date.

Helpful Tip: Using an effective date in the past will update transactions and balances to the newly determined status when the process is completed so you don't need to worry about changing past transactions to reflect the new status.

Step Six: Enter the date the determination was made in the "Determination Made Date" field or simply click the calendar icon to select a date using a calendar view.

Step Seven: Click the "Make Dependents 'Free'/'Reduced'/'Paying'" button to apply the determination result to the selected dependents in the "Student List".

Step Eight: Click the "OK" button to confirm the update to the dependents' status or click the "Cancel" button to exit.

Step Nine: Click the "Print Letter" button to print an eligibility letter for the specified family notifying them of their determined status.

Step Ten (optional): Click the "Reset" button to reset the household size and income values entered to begin a new free and reduced determination.