The short answer is no, you do not, but it may allow you to raise your discount rate. If you expect that all of your sites (Elementary, Middle and High School) will have a 75% or higher free and reduced lunch rate, you do not need to conduct a survey. In certain instances, conducting a survey can be beneficial. First, a little background on how the SLD allows you to determine your discount rate:

There are two methods the SLD allows applicants to use to determine their discount rate:

1. Relying on the free and reduced lunch numbers reported to the State Department of Education. While these numbers are acceptable, they often will record "underreporting" of eligible students, especially at the higher grade levels.
2. Conduct a survey based not only upon income levels, but also upon other measures of poverty. One of the benefits of relying upon a survey is that you are allowed to extrapolate your responses to 100% of your population at the site if you get a 50% response rate. For example, say your High School had 100 students enrolled. You send out 100 surveys, get 50 back and of those 50 90% (or 45 students) say that they meet the poverty standards. The SLD allows you to extrapolate that data to 100% of your population at the site, so you could claim that 90 out of 100 students at the HS qualify for free and reduced lunch programs.

You are not required to do a survey. If you wish to do so, please follow the instructions below.

Income Survey Instructions

1. You must keep separate records for each site (High School, Elem. School, etc.).
2. You must keep the surveys that are returned for five years.
3. You must distribute the surveys to all students enrolled at each site, if you wish to conduct a survey.

Information Needed by CRW Consulting:

For each site participating in the survey, we will need the following numbers on school letterhead, signed by the Superintendent or Child Nutrition Director:

1. Total number of students enrolled at the specific school.
2. Total number of surveys sent out (should match total enrollment).
3. Total number of surveys returned (if there are two family members listed on the survey, you may count that as two responses).
4. Total number of students who answered "yes" to any question.
5. A copy of a completed survey (with the names and addresses blacked-out).

Fax the above information to 918.445.0049, or email to info@crwconsulting.com

Click here to view a copy of the Survey Cover Letter.
Click here to view a copy of the Income Survey.