Nebraska Department of Education Homepage

Important Dates for Schools

Download School Nutrition Program Important Dates

July

July 1

  • Program Year starts; the School Meals Application for School Food Authorities (SFAs) opens in CNP for the new program year.
  • Upload student enrollment into the CNP Direct Certification (DC) Enrollment module if ADVISER/PersonID rosters are not accurate.
    • All schools must update student enrollment at least three times each program year.
      • Public SFAs must manually update enrollment in ADVISER until July 15th, when automatic nightly matching begins.
      • Non-public SFAs must manually update enrollment in PersonID and/or CNP.
  • Complete Food Safety Inspections Report in CNP. Report number of health inspections for each site that were received in the prior program year.

July 2

  • DC match list will begin populating for the new program year. SFAs can start distributing Notice of Approval/Denial letters (Attachment D) to households with matched students.
  • Nightly DC matching process begins based on ADVISER/PersonID or CNP DC student enrollment data; SFAs should check their match list daily for newly matched students.

July 15

  • Deadline for Non-Public Schools, Residential Child Care Institutions (RCCIs) and Government Agencies to complete their Annual Financial Statement in CNP. Report the previous program year.
  • Deadline for Residential Child Care Institutions (RCCIs) to complete the School Meals Application in CNP for the new program year.

July – August

  • Distribute Free and Reduced-Price Meal Application (Attachment C) and Letter to households (Attachment B). SFAs participating in the Community Eligibility Provision should not distribute applications. Distribute Notice of Approval/Denial letters (Attachment D) to households as applications are approved or denied.
  • Update the Point of Service system with the current school year’s student meal eligibility determinations.
  • Determine the 30th school/operating day for free/reduced meal carryover eligibility from the previous school year.
  • All staff, paid and volunteer, who have School Nutrition Program responsibilities must complete the Civil Rights training requirement annually.
  • School Nutrition Programs Trainings are presented by the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) Nutrition Services.

August

July – August

  • Distribute Free and Reduced-Price Meal Application (Attachment C) and Letter to households (Attachment B). SFAs participating in the Community Eligibility Provision should not distribute applications. Distribute Notice of Approval/Denial letters (Attachment D) to households as applications are approved or denied.
  • Update the Point of Service system with the current school year’s student meal eligibility determinations.
  • Determine the 30th school/operating day for free/reduced meal carryover eligibility from the previous school year.
  • All staff, paid and volunteer, who have School Nutrition Program responsibilities must complete the Civil Rights training requirement annually.
  • School Nutrition Programs Trainings are presented by the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) Nutrition Services.

August 15

  • Deadline to complete the School Meals Application in CNP for the new program year.

August 31

  • Non-public SFAs should update student enrollment in the PersonID system or upload enrollment files into the DC Enrollment module to ensure accurate matching.

30th School Day

  • Deadline for SFAs participating in the Afterschool Snack Program to complete an On-Site Review (Attachment I-1) at each site; keep on file. A second On-Site Review must be completed and kept on file at each site before the end of the program year.
  • Last day students remaining on carryover eligibility can receive free/reduced benefits OR until the student receives a new determination, whichever occurs first.

September

September 15

  • Public Schools: automatic nightly matching for student enrollment data begins

30th School Day

  • Deadline for SFAs participating in the Afterschool Snack Program to complete an On-Site Review (Attachment I-1) at each site; keep on file. A second On-Site Review must be completed and kept on file at each site before the end of the program year.
  • Last day students remaining on carryover eligibility can receive free/reduced benefits OR until the student receives a new determination, whichever occurs first.

October

October 1

  • Deadline when free/reduced applications must be counted for the verification pool. Application verification can occur on or before October 1st, but the final number of applications to verify must be calculated as of October 1st.
  • Contact NDE Nutrition Services if interested in contracting with a Food Service Management Company for the next school year.

2nd week of October

October 15

  • Deadline for entering the number of Health Inspections received at each feeding site for the previous program year in the CNP system.

October 31

  • Update student enrollment for Direct Certification (second of the three required times).
  • Verification Report opens in CNP.

November

November 1

November 15

December

December 1

  • Deadline to request the Fixed Price per Meal Food Service Management Company Request for Proposal (RFP) if considering a Food Service Management Company for the next program year.

January

January 15

  • Deadline to submit the Fixed Price per Meal Food Service Management Company Request for Proposal (RFP) if considering a Food Service Management Company for the next program year.

February

February 1

February 28

  • Update student enrollment for Direct Certification (third of three required times).

March

1st full week of March

March – May

  • The Paid Lunch Equity Tool is available.
    • SFAs that don’t qualify for Paid Lunch Equity Exemption and charge for student meals must complete the Paid Lunch Equity Tool before setting meal prices for the upcoming program year.

April

March – May

  • The Paid Lunch Equity Tool is available.
    • SFAs that don’t qualify for Paid Lunch Equity Exemption and charge for student meals must complete the Paid Lunch Equity Tool before setting meal prices for the upcoming program year.

April – May

  • Annual in-person School Meals Food Service Director and Bookkeeper Trainings registration opens; registration is required.

May

March – May

  • The Paid Lunch Equity Tool is available.
    • SFAs that don’t qualify for Paid Lunch Equity Exemption and charge for student meals must complete the Paid Lunch Equity Tool before setting meal prices for the upcoming program year.

April – May

  • Annual in-person School Meals Food Service Director and Bookkeeper Trainings registration opens; registration is required.

1st full week of May

  • School Nutrition Employee Appreciation Week

2nd Wednesday of May

  • Nebraska School Food Service Employee Appreciation Day

June

June

June 30

  • Program Year ends

Submitting a Claim

Claim Deadlines and Payment Dates

SFAs are encouraged to submit the Claim for Reimbursement by the 10th day of the following month (i.e. August claims are due by September 10). Claims are paid on the 10th and 20th each month.

Federal regulations require all valid final claims to be submitted no later than 60 calendar days following the last day of the month covered by the claim. This means that all original claims and upward revisions are due within 60 calendar days. Downward revisions may continue to be submitted at any time.

  Claim Month   Due Date
  August   October 30
  September   November 29
  October   December 30
  November   January 29
  December   March 1 (Feb 29 if leap year)
  January   April 1 (Mar 31 if leap year)
  February   April 29
  March   May 30
  April   June 29
  May   July 30
  June   August 29
  July   September 29
Updated February 9, 2026 11:56am