On May 8, 2026, the USDA announced their Final Rule Expanding Fluid Milk Options in Child Nutrition Programs (CNPs). This rule allows whole and reduced-fat (2%) milk to be offered to participants ages two (2) and up in the CACFP, National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), and Special Milk Program (SMP). The rule goes into effect on June 8, 2026.
| Age Group | Whole | Red. Fat (2%) | Low-Fat (1%) | Fat-Free (Skim) | Flavored |
| 1 year | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| 2-5 years | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| 6-18 years | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Adults | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Note: Per the USDA Final Rule, program operators are not required to offer the new milk options and may determine what is right for their organization. As such, you can choose whether these options are right for your centers and when you are ready to begin using them. We encourage you to follow all federal and state guidance when implementing the new options.
What Has Changed in KidKare to Support This Rule?
To support the expansion of milk offerings in CACFP, we have implemented additional options for tracking and processing milk on CACFP claims.
Important: The following updates are only available in KidKare and will not be added to the deprecated CX desktop application or the CX Web receipt tool. While claims processing in the CX application will use the updated logic for milk (once enabled), all menus, milk audits, and receipts must be managed in KidKare to remain accurate.
Now, let's take a brief look at what has changed:
-
New policy M.21: This policy allows you to control whether (and when) you enable the expanded milk options for your program. It defaults to N, which means that you choose when to implement expanded milk options. It's also configurable by state for those sponsors operating in multiple states.
- Daily Menu: When M.21 is enabled, the Daily Menu will display a milk matrix allowing your sites (and you) to indicate by age group what "fat tier" is being served at a given meal. It only will appear when a milk is selected.
- Receipts: We have updated the milk options in both Itemized Entry and Quick Entry to include the updated milk options. This has also been adjusted in Parachute, for those centers using Parachute for receipt entry.
- Milk Audit: The Milk Audit will including tracking for the new milk types, taking into consideration menus, tracked quantities, and receipts just as as it does today.
- New Claim Errors: Three new claim errors have been added to account for the updated milk options:
- Error 117: Milk Served is Missing a Fat-Content Subcategory
- Error 118: Whole Milk Required for 1-year Old
- Error 119: Flavored Milk Served to Ages 1-5
- Reports: Reporting around menus and milk items have been updated to account for the new milk options:
- Menu Production Record
- Weekly Quantities Required
- Office Error Report
What's Coming Next?
We focused in on the areas that are absolutely critical to menu tracking and claims processing for the first phase of these updates. You will notice some areas that still need updating—and we're on it.
Here's a look at what else is getting updates in Phase 2:
- Apply Master Menus
- Copy Menus
- Updates to Error 78 & 79 to handle the new milk types
- Reports:
- Receipt List Export
- Center Receipts Journal
- Monthly Receipt Totals
- Milk Audit Daily Report
- Milk Audit Monthly Report
- Expenditure Worksheet
Before You Enable Expanded Milk Options
Before turning on the new policy, we recommend that your team:
- Decide whether your organization will allow the expanded milk options.
- Choose when your centers should begin using them.
- Help centers move to KidKare Online if they are still using Minute Menu CX.
- Train centers on selecting milk fat types by age group.
- Enable M.21 in KidKare Online when your team is ready.
The updated milk rules only apply to menus dated June 8, 2026 or later. Turning on M.21 will not impact claims for May 2026 or earlier.
However, once M.21 is enabled, June 2026 and later claims will process under the updated milk guidelines. If centers have already entered menus without milk fat-tier information, those meals may trigger new claim Error 117.
We recommend planning the timing of this update carefully, especially if your team is still processing June 2026 or later claims.
If you choose to wait before enabling M.21, you can use this time to prepare for an upcoming claim cycle. This is a good opportunity to help your centers move to KidKare Online, train staff on recording milk by fat type, and get your sponsor network ready to serve and track the expanded milk options when your organization decides to enable the new policy.