THE Public School System-Child Nutrition Program and the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs-Nutrition Assistance Program have extended the application deadline for Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, or P-EBT, program.
Applications will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on Friday June 25, 2021 at the PSS-CNP office on Capital Hill, house number 1251 located across the street from the Medicaid office, or at the DCCA-NAP office in As Lito.
Households on Tinian and Rota are advised to submit their P-EBT applications directly to the PSS-CNP office at the Tinian Jr./Sr. High School or at PSS-CNP office at Dr. Rita H. Inos Jr./Sr. High School.
There will be no further application extensions.
This extended application period will cause a delay in the distribution of P-EBT benefits from the NAP office, which were originally anticipated to be distributed in July.
P-EBT benefits are now expected to be distributed sometime in August.
Media announcements will be made by the NAP office informing the public of the distribution date.
Households are reminded that the individual signing the application must be the registered parent or guardian on record at their child’s school, in order to avoid delays.
As of June 15, 2021, the CNP office received 5,313 P-EBT applications on Saipan, 288 on Tinian and 233 on Rota of which 4,884 applications had been verified, PSS-CNP Director Dale Roberts said.
“We are continuing to process applications and will be progressing with remaining and incoming applications. We are also addressing the applications with issues that will require CNP staff to contact applicant households necessary to resolve those issues,” Roberts said.
He noted that the common issues encountered are those with individuals who signed the application but were not registered as a parent or guardian on the respective school’s record.
Moreover, he announced that verified applications or applications that have been processed are published on the PSS-CNP page of the PSS website, which lists the application numbers that are considered approved.
Households may visit the CNP website at https://cnmipss.org/k-12-schools/meals-%E2%80%93-child-nutrition-program.
Households are urged not to call the CNP office to follow up on their applications, but are requested to visit the site regularly for this purpose.
The CNP office will be making calls to households that have issues on their application.
As staffing is limited, calling the CNP office to follow up slows down the processing.
P-EBT is a program that provides NAP benefits to school-age children who lost access to school meals because their school is closed or is operating with reduced in-person attendance due to Covid-19 in school year 2020-21.
A school-age child is defined as a child enrolled in a public or private school beginning from pre-school to Grade 12 for school year 2020-21.
According to Roberts, all schools had reduced in-person attendance or was closed for at least five consecutive days.
Therefore, all children in pre-school to Grade 12 will be eligible for P-EBT based on their respective school’s predominant schedule, such as the number of closed days and the number of reduced in-person attendance per month for school year 2020-21.
P-EBT benefits will be retroactive to the start of school year 2020-21.
According to DCCA-NAP Administrator Walter Macaranas, P-EBT is extended to children who are enrolled in Early Head Start and daycares, but it is limited to those whose households are receiving NAP benefits.
This means P-EBT is extended to NAP-enrolled children under six years of age, Macaranas added.
The definite schedule and details of the P-EBT distribution will be published at a later date.
