[MaxGhenis]

Give Georgia students who otherwise receive reduced-price meals both breakfast and lunch at no charge during confirmed funded school years. Main leaves Georgia's copay flag false for those students.

Georgia's Department of Education (GaDOE) covered both copays with federal ESSER funds in school year 2023–24. Georgia's state auditors confirm that allocation and September 2023 guidance to districts on slide 86. Houston County told families that students would pay neither copay in its 2023–24 handbook, page 27.

Georgia subsequently funded coverage through annual appropriations:

• Georgia provides $6,333,713 for both meals under HB 916, FY2025, program 24.13, line 1871.
• Georgia retains the allocation under HB 68, FY2026, item 155.4. The state auditor and OPB director confirm GaDOE's use of those funds in their January 9, 2026 fiscal note.
• Georgia continues nutrition funding under HB 974, FY2027, program 24.13. Atlanta Public Schools lists $0 breakfast and lunch charges for approved reduced-price students on its 2026–27 meal prices page.

The parameter covers July 2023 through June 2027, with an explicit funding end. The model applies coverage in calendar years 2024 through 2027 because annual formulas read January 1. Georgia's program registry entry includes the funded periods.

Closes #10235

Prior review

The author of #10238 restored Georgia's false flag in commit c4fdec5, describing annual funding as outside that PR's scope. A maintainer later retained Georgia for follow-up.

The earlier author cited the annual budgets. State auditors and implementing districts also confirm that students pay neither copay. The model includes dated annual funding for other states.

The governor directed GaDOE to disregard an FY2024 budget adjustment, but GaDOE separately used ESSER funds for that school year. In HB 19, section 55, the legislature distinguishes binding program appropriations from explanatory adjustment rows. No statute-versus-guidance conflict applies to GaDOE's separate use of ESSER funds.

Invariants

test_ga_school_meal_copay_invariants.py checks generated incomes against Alabama, Florida and North Carolina controls, with six examples and direct fiscal-date checks:

• Only Georgia's otherwise reduced-price band changes, within calendar years 2024–2027. Those students intentionally move from REDUCED to FREE for both meals.
• Federal free eligibility, categorical eligibility, paid-tier incomes, other states and years outside the funded span retain main's results.
• Holding household composition and categorical status fixed, increasing countable income never improves the tier. Georgia's coverage never lowers the modeled subsidy.
• Every funding start and the June/July 2027 end have parameter checks on both sides. Existing federal income thresholds remain unchanged.

The variable-named YAML cases check the reported family, the annual start/end, categorical controls and incomes $1 below, at and above each federal threshold. The existing jurisdiction matrix now includes Georgia during the funded years.

For example, a parent and a ten-year-old in Georgia have $34,624 of school-meal countable income in 2026. The model's two-person guideline totals $21,640; $34,624 / $21,640 = 160%, inside the reduced-price band. GaDOE covers both copays. At January 2026 rates, their modeled annual net value equals (4.60 + 2.46 - 0.44 - 0.40) × 180 = $1,119.60, a $126 increase over reduced-price valuation.

Methodology choices

• Date school-year 2023–24 coverage from July 1 under 7 CFR 210.2. The auditors confirm the school year and September guidance. Neither the auditors nor the district identifies a precise allocation start or retroactive reimbursement.
• July and September starts first affect calendar 2024 under the retained January 1 lookup. Leave partial-year valuation to the broader school-year timing work.
• Continue state funding through the last confirmed fiscal year and stop July 2027. Infer no later renewal.
• Retain the existing participating-school assumption and represent the confirmed copay waiver statewide. Do not infer a household rationing formula from the aggregate appropriation.
• Keep the registry status consistent with other dated copay programs, and state the annual approximation in its notes.
• Reuse the existing copay parameter and income thresholds. Add no enrollment or take-up inputs; Add a school meal take-up input #10834 handles school-meal take-up separately.
• Leave countable-income work to The model counts educational assistance in school meal income, subtracts business losses and leaves out alimony, workers' compensation and other income USDA counts #10801, child categorical eligibility to Limit school meal categorical eligibility to each qualifying child #10838, and Virginia/Washington school-specific coverage to follow-up work.

Microsimulation impact

To be measured before merge.

Validation

Local checks at 5e30ffa82343202400c2a9302a3e9dcabb826d3d:

• All 92 tier YAML cases passed across 24 sequential batches. Each batch contained at most eight cases and three explicit years; comparison confirmed complete, identical parsed content and original order.
• All 11 property and fiscal-date tests passed in 9.79 pytest seconds and 47.42 wall seconds, including setup; peak memory reached 1,256.05 MiB.
• The program-registry file passed 873 tests and skipped 10 entries already listed in KNOWN_UNRESOLVED.
• All three date/funding mutants triggered assertion failures, and the helper restored each source change. The source-conflict file passed 103 tests.
• YAML batches reached a maximum peak of 3,137.72 MiB, below the 4 GiB process cap.
• GitHub skipped the draft PR's checks; Linux CI and partner contract results remain unavailable.

Core Python tests check fiscal parameter dates and generated invariants that annual YAML examples cannot exhaust. They reuse the imported system on the existing core Python runner. The new file had no prior runtime; the local measurements above include setup. Linux CI measurements remain unavailable.

Overlapping work

Authors of other open PRs edit the program registry. Authors handling school-meal take-up and qualifying months change separate formulas. Coordinate Georgia's parameter and jurisdiction expectations with those registry edits. Registry overlaps include #10854, #10846, #10836, #10827, #10821, #10817, #10816, #10815 and #10803. The related take-up change remains in #10834.

axiom: needed: extend TheAxiomFoundation/rulespec-us#1782 with Georgia's funded copays, the ESSER school year and funding boundaries.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code