2026–2027 CACFP Reimbursement Rates for Adult Day Care Centers
The 2026–2027 CACFP reimbursement rates for adult day care centers run July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. Keep USDA rates, Meal Type, and daily meal records separate.
The 2026–2027 CACFP reimbursement rates for adult day care centers are the federal amounts USDA pays for each breakfast, lunch or supper, and snack served from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. Adult day care meal reimbursement is a published rate applied to meals that were actually served, for participants classified as Free, Reduced, or Paid. The rate, the classification, and the daily count are not the same record.
This article is a current reference for those CACFP adult care center rates and for how they sit next to meal records and reimbursement documentation. State agencies and sponsors can add procedures on top of the federal notice.
The current reimbursement period
These rates are in effect from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. USDA revises CACFP payment rates every July 1 to reflect the Consumer Price Index. Last year's table is not this year's table.
Check the new notice each July before you price a claim, a budget, or a contract. The next federal period starts July 1, 2027. Your state agency or sponsor may also issue its own packet, deadline, or worksheet when the new rates take effect.
The figures below are the National Average Payment Rates for Centers. That is the table that covers meals and snacks served in adult day care centers. It also covers child care centers, outside-school-hours care centers, and at-risk afterschool care centers. Day-care-home Tier I and Tier II rates, and administrative rates paid to sponsors of day care homes, are a different part of CACFP. Do not use those home tables for an adult day care center.
The District of Columbia uses the contiguous-states figures. Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands use the higher figures in their rows. These rates do not include the value of USDA Foods or cash-in-lieu of USDA Foods, which USDA announces separately.
Current adult day care rates
Amounts are per meal or snack. USDA rounds adjustments down to the nearest whole cent.
Contiguous states (including the District of Columbia)
Breakfast
- Paid: $0.42
- Reduced-price: $2.24
- Free: $2.54
Lunch or supper
- Paid: $0.45
- Reduced-price: $4.36
- Free: $4.76
Snack
- Paid: $0.12
- Reduced-price: $0.65
- Free: $1.30
Alaska
Breakfast
- Paid: $0.64
- Reduced-price: $3.79
- Free: $4.09
Lunch or supper
- Paid: $0.74
- Reduced-price: $7.32
- Free: $7.72
Snack
- Paid: $0.19
- Reduced-price: $1.06
- Free: $2.12
Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands
Breakfast
- Paid: $0.52
- Reduced-price: $2.99
- Free: $3.29
Lunch or supper
- Paid: $0.59
- Reduced-price: $5.79
- Free: $6.19
Snack
- Paid: $0.15
- Reduced-price: $0.85
- Free: $1.70
USDA's center table uses the label lunch or supper and one snack rate. A center claims the meals and snacks it actually served, under the rules its state agency or sponsor applies. ElderSuite records Lunch among four daily boxes. It does not record supper.
Rates, Meal Type, and daily meal counts are different things
Four facts get treated as if they were one number. They are not.
USDA reimbursement rate
Answers how many cents or dollars the federal program pays for one Free, reduced-price, or Paid breakfast, lunch or supper, or snack in this period.
It does not mark who ate, and it does not classify a participant.
Meal Type
Answers whether that participant is Free, Reduced, or Paid.
It does not record today's meals, and it is not the USDA rate table.
Daily meal record
Answers which meals that person received on a service date.
It does not set Meal Type, and it does not publish a federal rate.
The center's eligibility file
Holds the household form, signatures, and other evidence the program requires.
Completing that paperwork does not, by itself, change Meal Type or the day's meal checks.
The USDA rate is public and nationwide for this period. Meal Type is a classification the center assigns on the client. Daily meals are a service-date record of what was served. Eligibility paperwork is the evidence behind the classification. A reviewer can ask for all four. One spreadsheet that tries to be all four is how a reimbursement question gets the wrong answer.
Staff set Meal Type on the client. Completing a Meal Application does not automatically determine Free, Reduced, or Paid. ElderSuite does not read the application to work out Meal Type. Whoever determines the category then sets Meal Type by hand. A stack of completed applications and a Meal Type left at Paid produces Paid counts.
How to Complete a Meal Application in ElderSuite is the operating Guide for the form.
Where the daily count and the paperwork live
If the center uses ElderSuite, keep the pieces in the windows that already hold them. The software can help organize meal records and eligibility paperwork. It does not determine CACFP eligibility. USDA publishes the reimbursement rates.
Meal Records, opened from the Nutrition Center, is the daily count. Each client row has four boxes: Breakfast, Morning Snack, Lunch, and Afternoon Snack. Those are the only four services ElderSuite records. Totals are counted from the checks. There is no box for typing a meal total.
Calculate Meals can use attendance times already on file, and the center's serving hours, to fill eligible meal boxes on the screen. It does not save. Staff review the boxes and use Save & Close. How to Calculate Meals from Attendance Times and How to Record Daily Meals in ElderSuite are the operating Guides. How to Scan Daily Meal Records into ElderSuite covers marked paper logs.
The Meal Application is a separate record from Meal Type. It stores and prints the Meal Benefit Income Eligibility form — household members, benefit case details, and household gross income. Nothing is calculated from it.
A practical file for a claim month is therefore:
- Confirm the USDA rate that applies to the center's location for this period.
- Keep each participant's eligibility paperwork current, then set Meal Type to match the determination the center made.
- Record the meals actually served on each service date.
- Produce the month's Free / Reduced / Paid counts and the month's breakfast, snack, and lunch counts from those records.
- Apply the federal rate — and any extra state or sponsor instruction — on the claim packet the agency actually wants.
ElderSuite holds the records in steps 2 through 4. It does not fill in USDA's cents for you, and it does not decide whether a point-of-service method will be accepted. Confirm that with your sponsor.
State agencies and sponsors may require more
The federal notice sets payment rates. It does not replace your state agency or food-program sponsor.
They may impose additional procedures, forms, deadlines, or documentation beyond the rate table. They may tell you which claim form to use, whether a calculated meal box is acceptable evidence, how long to keep signed applications, and when the new rates must appear on a July claim. Follow that packet. The figures on this page are the federal center rates for this period, not your state's entire rulebook.
Use the official notice, then keep the records apart
For the legal text, use USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program notice for the period July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. When the next July notice is published, replace this table. Do not carry last year's cents forward.
For the split between eligibility paperwork, daily meal checks, and claim counts, see Adult Day Care Meal Tracking and CACFP Documentation. For the wider product picture, see Adult Day Care Software: The Complete Guide for 2026.
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