Meal Applications/Title I Funding

One of the most important actions you can take to help your children and help the educational programs at Kester Elementary is to submit an LAUSD Meal Application at the start of school each year.

• For you: Your children may be eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school. Many people are surprised to learn that they qualify. Federal money is allocated for this purpose and you should get your share.
• For Kester: Kester depends on funds provided by the federal Title I program and our Title I funding depends on the percentage of accepted Meal Applications. If all Kester families apply we'll meet the threshold (50%) and receive these funds. If eligible families do not apply, we can miss the threshold (see history below).

More than 50% of Kester students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, but we don't receive the resulting funding unless we can show it.

We don't know in advance what formula the school district will use to determine eligibility, so ALL Kester families should submit a meal application, no matter what their family income is.

2022-2023 Title I Funding/Meal Applications

Where the site asks for the Zip Code, enter 91411.

Applications are still accepted after the deadline but won't count toward our Title I Eligibility.

More information about the Meal Application

HOW TO APPLY

The application process is simple. Either apply by mail or apply online.

Apply by mail: You should have already received a Meal Application in the mail. If you did, fill it out and mail it in. If you lost it or threw it out without applying, get another form from the Main Office. Fill it out and mail it in.

Apply online: Go to My School Apps and enter Zip Code 91411.

Tips:

• Applications are per family/household. You do not need to submit an application for each student or each school.
• You will need the grades and dates of birth for each student and income information for each family member who earns income.
• You can use a home computer, library or other public computer, or a smart phone or tablet to apply online.
• LAUSD will determine if you qualify. Even if you consider yourself "middle class" your family may qualify. For example, families earning $40,000 per year, $50,000 per year, $60,000 per year, or more can qualify under the eligibility guidelines.
• If you aren't sure whether or not you turned in the application, turn one in. LAUSD will weed out any duplicate applications. If you submit multiple applications giving different family information then LAUSD may ask you to verify the information that you provided and that can delay their processing, so be careful to fill in the exact same information each time.

WE DEPEND ON MEAL APPLICATIONS FOR TITLE I FUNDING!

In 2015, Kester lost lost it's funding, even though we had enough eligible families. That's because we stopped reminding families to submit Meal Applications after we thought we had enough qualifying families on the record. That was a $200,000 funding loss for that year. 

If every Kester family had submitted a Meal Application in 2015-2016 then we would have met the requirements and retained our Title I funding. Please submit a Meal Application each year and help us get our fair share of Title I federal funding!