Pandemic EBT has been approved for the 2021-’22 school year. These payments will arrive on QUEST cards or P-EBT cards starting in March. (Stock photo)

Pandemic EBT, or P-EBT, has been approved for the 2021-’22 school year.

This means that parents of students who learn remotely or are unable to attend school due to COVID-19 will be paid to supplement the cost of meals that would have been covered by the National School Lunch Program had the child attended in-person.

A parent is eligible to receive P-EBT for each child who meets the following criteria:

• The child is enrolled in a school participating in the National School Lunch Program. Click here for information.
• The child is eligible to receive free meals at school through the National School Lunch Program.
• The child spent at least five consecutive days learning virtually or could not attend school due to a COVID-19 reason.

Parents of eligible students will receive $7.10 per day that their child spent learning virtually or could not attend school due to COVID-19.

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The first P-EBT payment will not be until March. More information about the benefits schedule is here.

This P-EBT program does not apply to parents of children aged 6 or younger. A 2021-’22 version of the Pre-6 P-EBT program has not been submitted.

More information about the 2021-’22 P-EBT program can be found here.

FoodShare emergency allotments for January not yet approved, by state officials are not worried

FoodShare recipients during the pandemic have been getting an extra $95 in their accounts each month, regardless of the level of FoodShare they qualify for.

However, it is not guaranteed that FoodShare recipients will see the extra funds in January.

The extra $95 is an “emergency allotment” of FoodShare benefits that has been provided to FoodShare recipients since April 2020.

However, the emergency allotments are tied to the existence of a federal public health emergency, which is scheduled to expire on Jan. 16, 90 days after it was last renewed in October.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services, or DHS, the state agency that administers FoodShare, said that the federal government has said that DHS will be notified at least 60 days before the public health emergency expires.

“At this time, the public health emergency lasts until January 16, and because we have not been notified by the federal government that it will be ending, we expect it to be renewed at that time for another 90 days,” said Elizabeth Goodsitt, communications specialist at DHS.

Regardless of the continuance of the emergency allotments, FoodShare recipients will need to complete their annual renewals, with no exceptions, starting on Jan. 1. Not all recipients will need to complete a renewal in January, but renewals can no longer be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.