The Kelly administration, in collaboration with the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) and Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE), the continuation of the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Program (P-EBT) for the 2022-2023 school year.
The program provides financial assistance to families who receive free or reduced-price school meals or who have children under the age of six and receive regular Food Assistance benefits.
Beginning this week, Kansas children under the age of 6 in a household that received Food Assistance (SNAP) between August, 2022 and May 11th, 2023, will start to receive the child care P-EBT benefit. The amount of the P-EBT benefit will vary depending on how many months a child received regular benefits. DCF anticipates distributing approximately $7.4 million for this program.
Additionally, DCF will be providing a supplemental P-EBT benefit for the summer months of 2023. This benefit is for school-aged children who received free or reduced-price school meals during the 2022 -23 school year.
Due to the complexity of gathering the necessary data, DCF will distribute the supplemental benefit in two phases beginning in January 2024.
The first phase includes an auto-issuance of benefits to families who are known to DCF through a direct certification process. The second phase, in February 2024, provides families an opportunity to request the supplemental benefit using an online portal. Officials said that additional info about the request process will be shared at a later date.
The supplemental benefit is $120 per child. DCF anticipates distributing $13.6 million for 2023.
Recipients can use their P-EBT funds to purchase eligible foods from approved retailers that accept Food Assistance benefits, including Dillons, Aldi, Amazon, or Walmart (Dillons Food Stores also recently announced that EBT payment for all online grocery orders will be accepted at its locations across Kansas).
Additional information can be found on the DCF website.
