This article outlines how to resolve various errors related to Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility in the DfE system. It details specific error codes, their meanings, and the steps required to correct them, including ensuring proper start and end dates for FSM periods, handling cases involving Service Children, and ensuring no overlapping FSM periods exist.
These errors can all be resolved by clicking the DfE error.
You'll then be taken to the Background section of the main Student Profile page.
1767Q- There is an FSM end date present
The DfE has outlined that during the implementation of Universal Credit and the introduction of a net earned income threshold to determine eligibility for free school meals, all students who have free school meals on 31 March 2018 or later will remain protected until the end of the universal credit roll-out period.
This means that any student who was in receipt of free school meals on 31 March 2018 or later should continue to receive free school meals until the end of the universal credit rollout period, and then until their phase of education ends. This applied until 31st March 2025. This applies even if their circumstances change and they would no longer meet the eligibility criteria. For further information, please see the DfE's Technical Specification.
If you are sure the student should not be FSM, you will need to instead add a note to COLLECT when submitting your census. You will need to add the specific reason(s) why the student should no longer be FSM.
In Arbor, make sure for FSM periods that started on 31 March 2018 or later, that the end date is set to Ongoing. You may need to first remove any newer recorded eligibilities.
Click Free School Meal in the Background section.
Click the eligibility history to edit, then click Edit. Make sure you remove the end date if the start date is on or after 1 April 2018.
1741Q - Based on Ministry of Defence criteria, Service Children (parents designated as personnel category 1 or 2) are not eligible for free school meals
This query will be triggered if a student is marked as both FSM eligible and having Service Child status.
The DfE states the following regarding FSM and Service Child status:
A child must live with the parent (either full or part-time) who is in the forces to be recorded as a service child.
If the parents are separated and the child lives with the parent in the forces but the other parent is eligible to claim for free school meals then the child can be recorded as both a service child and also FSM eligible. A notepad must be provided to explain this is the case.
If the pupil was previously FSM on or after the 31 March 2018 and the parent/s have joined HM forces since, the pupil has FSM protection and therefore can be recorded as both a service child and FSM eligible. A notepad must be provided to explain this is the case.
The school will qualify for both elements of the pupil premium.
If a student doesn't meet the criteria given by the DfE, you should ensure that either they do not have both an active Service Child status and an FSM eligibility - this will clear query 1741Q.
1761- A start date must be provided for each period of free school meal eligibility
Click Free School Meal in the Background section.
In the slide over click Edit, then add a start date.
1762- Periods of free school meal eligibility that started after the census day should not be included in the return.
Please make sure that for each student that has FSM, the start date is set to before the Census not after.
If a student has future eligibility, the Background section will say Not currently eligible. Click it to edit it.
Click into the upcoming eligibility.
Click edit, and change the end date to before Census day, or delete it. Make sure to add it back on once they are actually FSM!
1763 - Periods of free school meal eligibility that ended before or on the previous census day or after the current census day should not be included in the return.
Please make sure that for each student that has had FSM, the end date is sent to before census day.
The Background section will say Not currently eligible. Click it to edit it.
Click the period of eligibility, then click Edit in the slide over.
Make sure the date in the Until field is before or on the previous census day or after the current census day should not be included in the return.
1766- The FSM end date is prior to the FSM start date
Please make sure that for each student that has FSM, the start date is set to before the end date.
Click Free School Meal in the Background section.
Click the eligibility history to edit, then click Edit. Make sure the start date is set to before the end date.
1768- Pupil cannot have multiple open FSM periods
For each student who has FSM, please make sure none of the FSM periods overlaps, and that all but one have an end date.
4061 - A valid last verified date must be provided for each open period of FSM eligibility.
If you do want to double-check if you are missing Last Verified dates for students with an ongoing claim or if you have any claims with an verified date after census day, you can:
- Head to School > Data > Data Quality > Students > Demographics > Bulk Update FSM
- Use the Column Filter to filter the FSM End Date column to only show Ongoing claims (see more on filtering columns here)
- Then filter the Last Verified date column to only show (Blank) columns and dates after census day
- Any claims with a start date before census day will need a last verified date added (banks) or adjusted (if the date was after the census). Just click on the student to add this on the slide-over or use the bulk action to do multiple.
4063 - Historic Free School Meal records must have a valid category other than Pending.
This error can appear when a student has a historic Free School Meal record (one with an end date) where the FSM category is still Pending. The census needs the category the student actually held at that time.
More information on the Pending status can be found here: "Pending" FSM category.
What to do if you see this error
- Open the student's profile and scroll down to Background.
- Click the Free School Meal tab. A slide-over will then open.
- In the Eligibility history section, click the historic record that has an end date. Its FSM category will show as Pending.
- Click Edit and choose the category the student held at that time. This is likely to be Targeted.
- Click Save Changes. Repeat for any other past FSM records for the same student.
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Regenerate the census. The error should clear.
4064 - The FSM expansion cohort started on 1 August 2026, so the expanded FSM could not begin earlier than this date
The DfE introduced Expanded Free School Meals (EFSM) starting from the 2026/27 academic year (1 August 2026) to cover pupils in households receiving Universal Credit regardless of earnings
Why the error should not flag in Arbor at all
What to do if you see this error
In late September 2026, the DfE issued a fix for an issue with their validation rules that was causing this error to flag for all students with EFSM. If you see this error, please regenerate your census, and you should see it disappear.
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