Responsive to this request, Free and Reduced Price Meals (FARMs) rates are calculated and reported in various formats dependent on the purpose/use of the data. Specifically, participation data by school and year as collected by the HCPSS Food and Nutrition Services Office based on income eligibility of students for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s free and reduced price meal programs, and reported annually for students participating as of October 31, can be found here: http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Pages/School-Community-Nutrition/FreeReducedPriceMealStatistics.aspx, which includes the 2018-2019 data by county and school (see the Statewide Detail by Agency tab).
Alternately, FARMs rates as calculated by the Maryland State Department of Education (and defined as “The number and percentage of students whose applications for free/reduced price meals meet the family size and income guidelines (as promulgated annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture) and students approved through direct certification. The counts are reported as of the student`s last day of enrollment in the school system - either the last day in school or the date the student withdrew. The percentage is calculated by dividing the number of students receiving free or reduced price meals by the June net enrollment.”) is reported on the Maryland Report Card - specifically, for the 2018-2019 school year the Data Downloads pages contain this data under Students Receiving Special Services: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/DataDownloads/datadownload/3/17/6/6/99.
Lastly, under the current boundary adjustment review process, FARMs rates calculated for planning purposes by school for 2018-2019 can be found in the 2019 Feasibility Study (see page 34): https://www.hcpss.org/f/schoolplanning/2019/2019-feasibility-study.pdf. Please note, these numbers will differ from the above data as outlined under the Data FAQ page on the HCPSS boundary review website: https://www.hcpss.org/school-planning/boundary-review/faq/#data.