Last week’s updates delivered a handful of enhancements to communications with families who apply for Free/Reduced-price meals, school fees waiver or Directly Certified students.
When you change the status of an application, a family receives a district customized letter informing of the benefits the students have been approved for, or if denied, a note explaining the reason for being denied. While some of these features were already available, the enhancements include:
- Coupon names are longer and easier to interpret, for example “20/21 Free hot meals”.
- In addition to longer coupon names, coupon descriptions that you have entered when creating the coupons are included in the the electronic communications. You may describe the types of school fees the coupons affect or discounts they provide.
- Separating school fees coupons from meal coupons makes it trivial for districts to offer mixed benefits such as Free Food and Reduced Fees. To match this, the electronic communications that families receive list benefits that their students were approved for. [Below is a sample letter a family may receive illustrating a mixed benefits scenario.]
- Approval or denial letters may include a customized note explaining why some or all the benefits were denied. For example, a school may require supportive documentation from the IRS in order to qualify for the school fees waiver.
Below is a sample letter to a family of two students. The students were approved for free meals and reduced fees.
