Collecting Family Income Surveys
Purpose: This document describes the process school office staff use for collecting Family Income Surveys. A new digital Family Income Survey was implemented in 2024-25 school year, along with a more narrowed approach in identifying families that need to complete the form.
The digital Family Income Survey can be found here: https://forms.psd1.org/Forms/FamilyIncomeSurvey
The Family Income Survey helps the district identify low income eligible students, which in turn impacts the level of funding the district receives. In addition, eligible families can qualify for benefits, such as Summer Food EBT ($120 per student) and fee waivers on extracurricular activities (eg. free ASB).
Please encourage families to complete the Family Income Survey to qualify for their eligible benefits and to maximize the district’s funding.
Who Should Complete the Family Income Survey?
Use the Need Income Survey report in PowerSchool. This report lists students that need to complete a Family Income Survey and have a high probability of being identified as eligible.
You’ll notice that the report only contains a fraction of your school’s students, that’s because students that participate in assistance programs—TANF, Basic Food, FDPIR, Migrant, Foster, Homeless—automatically qualify and do not need to complete the Family Income Survey. They will not be shown on this report.
Access the report by going to Data and Reporting > Custom Reports > Need Income Survey. Select your building, the appropriate school year, then click Generate Report. A list of students, and their guardians, will be exported. Ensure all families on this list complete a survey. As families complete a survey, their students will be removed from the report the next time it is generated.
Is there a paper form available?
A paper Family Income Survey—called the Child Nutrition Eligibility & Education Benefit (CNEEB) form –is available on OSPI’s website. Several translated versions are available as well. If you choose to use the paper form, please send completed forms to the Special Programs Department. Heads up, the paper form is quite lengthy and a little intimidating.
Do you have communication tips or tricks?
We have a couple…
- Focus on the PowerSchool report. Students on this list have a high probability of being eligible; if we collect a Family Income Survey from these students, we’ll be in good shape.
- Emphasize the benefits to the family. Eligible families qualify for Summer Food EBT benefit ($120 per student…that adds up!) and get fee waivers for extracurricular activities (eg. free ASB).
- Setup an Auto-Update Group in ParentSquare. Every night, we flag students in ParentSquare that still need an income survey. This is the same list of students in the PowerSchool report. Create a group using the below click path.
Additional Frequently Asked Questions can be found on this district webpage.