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The CACFP fiscal year (FY) began on October 1. The following newsletter articles highlight important updates and reminders to help you be successful in FY 26.
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) sponsors must renew their Application annually with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) by September 1. Sponsors who submit their application for approval past the September 1 deadline may not be approved in time to receive reimbursement for meals served during October 2025.
Common Delays to FY 26 Application Renewal
Budget Approval - WINS
All costs, including food, require prior approval before the cost is incurred. Sponsoring Organizations must have their budget submitted and approved by September 30, 2025. Sponsoring Organizations will not be approved to claim meals prior to the date their budgets are approved.
Note: Independent Sponsors (sponsors with only one site) and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) do not need to submit a budget with annual renewal.
Required Training
CACFP Specialists verify that sponsors have completed required trainings in Bright Track. If required training modules are not completed, renewal applications will not be approved. Use the CACFP FY26 Annual Training Checklist as a guide to complete training requirements. Depending on sponsor type, expect 3–5 courses assigned. Some courses may take up to four hours to complete.
For more information on the renewal process, renewal bulletins and resources, please review our August 18th CACFP Update.
Organizations receiving a CACFP Administrative Review (AR) in FY 26 will be notified this week. Review dates and AR details will be provided closer to the time of review.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires each CACFP Sponsoring Organization (sponsors with two or more sites on the CACFP) to provide adequate supervisory and operational personnel. This is to maintain effective management and monitoring of the program at all sponsored sites. Each sponsoring organization must employ monitoring staff sufficient to meet the federal requirements in 7 CFR 226.16(b)(1).
The beginning of the fiscal year is an ideal time to create a monitoring schedule that includes unannounced visits observation of a variety of meal types. This helps ensure monitoring requirements are met. Additionally, if a new site begins operation in FY 26, it must be monitored within the first four weeks of operation.
When creating a monitoring schedule keep these CACFP requirements in mind:
- Community Sponsors operating Child Care Sites must use the CACFP Site Monitoring Form and need to have three monitoring visits each FY.
- At least two of the reviews must be unannounced.
- At least one unannounced review must include observation of a meal service.
- At least one review must be during each new facility’s first four weeks of operation.
- No more than six months may elapse between reviews.
- Local Education Agencies (LEAs) operating At-Risk only school sites must use the LEA Monitoring Form and only need two monitoring visits per school year (SY).
Visit the Program Requirements and Materials page and use the “Multi-Site sponsor” dropdown for monitoring forms and other resources for Sponsors of multiple sites.
Previously, OSPI required sponsors to report free, reduced-price, and above scale claiming percentages for one month, the study month, which set the rate of reimbursement for the entire fiscal year.
In FY 26, sponsors are required to report free, reduced-price, and above scale claiming percentages every month for reimbursement based on actual participation. This change starts with the October claim.
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CACFP Office Hours
CACFP Program Specialists will host office hours in October and November to support Sponsors with the transition to Monthly Participant Eligibility (MPE). Specialists will demonstrate how to enter monthly claims, MPE data, and answer your questions. Watch for Office Hour invitations from Program Specialists!
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Monthly Participant Eligibility Process Details:
- Distribute the Sample Letter to Parents for Income Eligibility and the Enrollment and Income Eligibility Application (EIEA) to participants as they enroll.
- Collect completed EIEAs, determine each participant’s eligibility, and sign/date the form.
- Use the Participant Eligibility Roster (required form) to track:
- Name of participant
- Date enrolled
- Submission of an EIEA or Enrollment Form
- Eligibility dates (EIEA effective/expiration dates)
- Participant eligibility (free/reduced-price/above scale)
- Date participant disenrolled
- Participant eligibility for each month
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For-profit institutions only: for-profit eligibility for each month
- Use the Participant Eligibility Report (optional form) for monthly claims for each site to track:
- Participants in attendance during the month
- Eligibility dates (EIEA effective/expiration dates)
- Participant eligibility (free/reduced-price/above scale)
- Calculate monthly participation total (free/reduced-price/above scale)
-For-profit Institutions only: Determine if for-profit eligibility is me. For-profit centers must have at least 25% free/reduced-price participants in attendance based on license capacity or total attendance, whichever is less. If eligibility is not met, a claim cannot be submitted for that site for the claim month.
*If another method is used to track monthly participant eligibility, the OSPI Participant Eligibility Report does not need to be used.
- Enter monthly participant eligibility totals into WINS for each site when entering the monthly claim.
- Keep documentation of monthly participant eligibility on file for three years plus the current fiscal year. This documentation does not need to be submitted to OSPI; however, a sample of this documentation will be requested when OSPI conducts an Administrative Review.
Reference
Resources
Child Care
Adult Care
Monthly Participant Eligibility Training is posted in Bright Track in both English and Spanish.
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Review important USDA updates including Final Rule changes and changes to Uniform Grant Guidance in the September C.A.R.E. article.
If you would like additional information on these changes along with other program reminders, please watch the FY 26 Annual Updates webinar in Bright Track available in English and Spanish.
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Recently, Hillshire Brands Company and Foster Farms recalled commercially purchased corn dog products. These products may be contaminated with pieces of wood in the batter.
Corn dog products should be thrown away or returned to where they were purchased and not consumed.
See USDA announcement and recalled products here:
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October 15
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September Claims due in WINS by 2 pm
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