Financial Literacy in School

When considering whether teaching financial literacy classes at a school will qualify as CD service, is FRL the only way to qualify the school? What if the school is located in a LMI census tract? We have several schools that are in the 40% FRL lunch range, but are located in LMI tracts. Any way to qualify them?

In the past, I have qualified financial education classes at schools that don't meet the FRL hurdle by gathering family income. We did some courses that were targeted high school juniors and seniors and their families, and one of the things we did was fill out FAFSAs for college financial aid. We also did income tax assistance that qualified. However, because we saw self-reported financial information, we knew the proportion of attendees that that were LMI.

Interesting question. My guess and hope is yes, it would qualify if the tract is LMI.

More and more school districts are going toward free lunches for all, regardless of income. During COVID it was a federal program, but now the states of Maine and California have both said they are extending the program into the 2022-2023 and beyond. Once that happens and parents don't have to fill out a form, it's going to be much harder to qualify activities and donations to schools based on FRL. For us, using FRL as a measurement provided a larger number of opportunities that LMI tracts do.