P-EBT & School Data Needs

Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT), authorized by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, provides families of eligible children additional funds to purchase food during the 2020-2021 school year. P-EBT is a complement to the meals and snacks currently being provided to children through the Child Nutrition Programs. P-EBT is administered through the Department of Economic Security (DES) in partnership with the Arizona Department of Education. 

P-EBT Overview Read the One-Pager 

In order for P-EBT funds to reach families by April, LEAs must submit the following information as soon as possible via ADEConnect and AzEDS. 

School Learning Models 

LEAs should access the new School Learning Models portal* in ADEConnect to provide available school learning models offered at each school in their district or charter organization for the 2020-2021 School Year, from August 2020 – present. The sooner this information is updated for a school, the sooner DES will be able to administer P-EBT to that school’s families. 

*Note: The portal was live as of Saturday, March 27, 2021.

The LEA ADE Connect Entity Administrators must designate the application role called "LEA Learning Models Data Collection- LEAUser" to staff responsible for submitting the information into the portal. It is recommended to provide access to a representative in food service. Questions about entering this information can be sent to [email protected] or call 602-542-8700 and select option 4. 

Student Free or Reduced-Price Meal Eligibility 

ADE will continue to use AzEDS to capture income-eligibility indicator data at the student level. For schools operating the NSLP, students with free meal eligibility are to be reported with Income Eligibility Indicator I and students with reduced-price meal eligibility are to be reported with Income Eligibility Indicator II.

Please make sure your AzEDS data is complete and accurate.  

Primary Guardian/Address Information 

To issue the P-EBT card, ADE will use AzEDS student-level data to identify the name and address of the primary guardian. 

Please make sure your AzEDS data is complete and up to date. If AzEDS data is not available, due to the school not reporting to AzEDS, ADE will collect a manually generated file from the LEA referenced in the guidance memorandum . ADE has provided recommendations for food service to obtain individual student eligibility now through June and reiterated the need to update AzEDS or submit additional files to ensure P-EBT issuance.