Based on the information you provide on the Verification of Elementary School Form, our tiering department staff verify and identify the free or reduced price School Lunch participation rate at the local public elementary school that a child living in your home would normally attend. If that rate is at or above 50 percent, and the school district confirms that is the school assigned to your address, then your child care home automatically qualifies for the higher Tier I rates and you will be reimbursed at those rates for meals/snacks served to all non-residential children in your care. If a Tier I determination is made based on the free or reduced price School Lunch participation rate, that determination remains in effect for five years. We may use recent census data to make the determination if school data is unavailable.

If you do not qualify by school, you may choose to apply for the higher Tier I rates based on your household income. To apply, you must complete a Provider Income Eligibility Application and supply accurate income verification so a determination can be made.

If you qualify by neither school or household income, you may then elect to distribute Household (Parent) Income Eligibility Applications to the families of the children in your care. Each household will have the option to complete a Household (Parent) Income Eligibility Application and return it to ACD. You will receive the higher Tier I rates for meals/snacks served to any child in your care whose family income is at or below 185 percent of the poverty line established by the federal government. You will receive Tier II rates for meals/ snacks served to any child whose family income is above 185 percent of the poverty line, or whose family chooses not to complete an application.

If it is determined that you do not qualify to receive Tier I rates, you will be reimbursed at Tier II rates for meals/snacks served to all children in your care. A Tier II determination is verified annually to ensure that you receive maximum reimbursement.

Household income information is highly confidential and will be treated as such by ACD staff. For that reason, if you are reimbursed at both Tier I and Tier II rates, ACD is able to notify you of the number of children eligible for each rate only on your check stub. The Association may also notify you of the number of Tier I children in your care if you call to request this information. The Association cannot release information regarding which children are reimbursed at which rate, nor which families have/have not returned the Household Income Eligibility Application to ACD.