The income eligibility guidelines (IEG) for the Child Nutrition Program (CNP) are based on the poverty guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS normally publishes the poverty guidelines in late January and USDA publishes them in February or March.

On May 5, 2010, USDA issued a memo stating that Congress had delayed publication of the 2010 poverty guidelines until May 31, 2010 at the earliest. 

On June 11, 2010, USDA issued an update which did not provide any indication when new guidelines would be available.

KSDE sought clarification from the USDA Mountain Plains Regional Office which has now provided written assurance that Kansas schools can use the 2009-2010 IEG for school year 2010-2011.

Although the IEG will remain the same for the new school year, numerous changes have been made to the application packet to align it with USDA's new prototypes which were released on May 27, 2010. So please take extra care to destroy all forms from last year and use the new ones. Check the date on each form's footer to be sure you have this year's version.

Thank you for your patience and understanding concerning this delay.