CARE for Kids Act Expands Automatic Free Lunch Eligibility for Children in Kinship Care and Foster Programs

The “Caregivers, Access, and Responsible Expansion for Kids Act of 2025,” or the CARE for Kids Act, is focused on ensuring that vulnerable children don’t lose access to school meals when their living situations change. Essentially, this bill acts like a safety net, dramatically expanding who qualifies for automatic free school meals—a process known as “direct certification”—and making sure that eligibility follows the child, even across state lines or school districts.

This legislation is a big deal for grandparents, relatives, and foster parents, as it cuts through the red tape that often causes gaps in service. It adds several new categories of children to the direct certification list, including those receiving adoption assistance payments (Sec. 2, Sec. 4), kinship guardianship payments (Sec. 2, Sec. 4), and children placed through child welfare agencies, even if that agency isn't ultimately responsible for their ongoing care. If you’re a caregiver who just took on a relative’s child, this bill means you won’t have to fill out the school lunch application—the benefits are automatic based on existing aid.

The Eligibility Passport: Meals Follow the Move

One of the most frustrating things for families in transition is the paperwork churn. If a child moves from School District A to School District B, the new district often requires a whole new application, which can lead to a gap in free meal access. The CARE for Kids Act addresses this directly by creating what amounts to an “eligibility passport” (Sec. 3).

If a child moves to a new school, the new district must honor the existing free or reduced-price meal status immediately. But here’s the crucial extension: if the child moved in with a grandparent or relative who has taken on a parental role (like having legal custody or a power of attorney), the new school must extend that meal eligibility for an extra year beyond the original approval period. This is a huge win for stability, ensuring that a child who just moved in with grandma doesn't have to worry about where their lunch is coming from for at least a year while the family adjusts.

The Medicaid Connection: Streamlining SSI and Foster Care Access

Section 5 of the bill cleans up and expands automatic eligibility based on Medicaid status. Previously, the rules for using Medicaid eligibility to grant free school meals could be confusing. This bill clarifies that children receiving Medicaid benefits because they are getting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits or are covered under the specific section of the Social Security Act dealing with foster care and adoption assistance (Part E of Title IV) automatically qualify for direct certification.

What this means in practice: If a child is already qualified for SSI or is in the foster care system, their school lunch status is locked in. This removes a significant administrative burden from schools and parents alike. For the School Food Authorities, this means less time processing individual applications and more time focusing on feeding kids. For taxpayers, while this expands utilization, it ensures that existing safety nets (like SSI and foster care support) are automatically linked to food security programs, making the system more efficient overall.