174096 Meals
User Manual: 174096
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Free and Reduced Price Meal Eligibility Marilynn Wells Director, Food Services Branch CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS 7 CFR Parts 210 and 220 ! Congressional intent that nutritious meals be available to all school children regardless of the household’s ability to pay. ! Code of Federal Regulations, 7 CFR Part 245 outlines eligibility requirements for free and reduced price meals ! USDA is the regulatory agency ! SFA’s must enter into agreements to operate meal programs to comply with USDA regulations Free and Reduced Price Policy Statement !Names of officials designated to make eligibility determinations !Assurance that the School Food Authority (SFA) will comply with current income eligibility guidelines !Description of how the SFA will prevent overt identification of children receiving free or reduced price meals Public (Media) Release !At the beginning of each school year, public must be notified that the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) are available. !Must include the eligibility criteria !Must be provided to the local news media Methods of Eligibility Determination !Direct Certification !Provision 2 !Meal Application Free/Reduced Meal Eligibility October 31, 2002 October 31, 2003 Total Enrollment 739,210 737,516 Total Free and Reduced Price 552,873 (75% needy) 250,605 (45%) 556,370 (75% needy) 173,728 (31%) Direct Certification 75,277 (17%) 87,353 (16%) Paper Applications 226,991 (41%) 295,289 (53%) Provision 2 Direct Certification ! Simplified method of determining eligibility for free meals without an application ! Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) provides an electronic file containing the names of LAUSD students receiving CalWORKs or food stamps ! If a match is made, the student is identified as eligible for free meals ! Households receive notice of direct certification Benefits of Direct Certification !Customer friendly; no application required !Reduces paperwork !No income verification required Direct Certification in LAUSD !FY 02 !FY 03 !FY 04 9,000 146,000 July 2002 75,277 December 2002 159,000 July 2003 87,185 October 2003 Changes in Direct Certification Status as of 11/7/03 !Free 16,398 !Reduced 398 !Paid 253 Provision 2 ! Applications required only in the base year; 4 year cycle ! All students receive meals at no charge ! Parents not motivated to submit meal application ! Reimbursement based on participation in each eligibility category ! Revenue minimized if students who are eligible for free or reduced priced meals do not submit meal application; counted as paying students ! Example: $2.21 (free) compared to $.23 (paid) Meal Applications ! Must be accompanied by “letter to households” listing instructions on how to complete form ! Privacy Act statement – disclosure of social security number or “none” is required for approval of the application; SSN is required under provisions of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act Distribution of Meal Applications !On or about July 1 or soon thereafter !SFA’s are required to distribute applications at the beginning of the school year to parents of all children in attendance in school except those who were directly certified. Application Campaign ! Sports celebrities: – Antonio Martinez, L.A. Galaxy • KMEX, Univision, Channel 32 and KVEA - Telemundo, Channel 52, KWHY, Channel 22, KRCA, Channel 62, KLCS – Hong Myung Bo, L.A. Galaxy • KLCS – Tyrone Marshall, L.A. Galaxy • KLCS, KCBS, KNBC, KTLA, KABC, KCAL, KTTV, KCOP, KSCI, KCET, KLCS – Nikki Teasley, Shaquala Williams, L.A. Sparks Application Campaign !Television PSA’s – Board President, Jose Huizar – Kevork Keushkerian, Assistant Principal Le Conte – Others !Radio PSA’s !Posters !Newspapers Application Campaign !Partnerships with – Big Saver Foods – Los Angeles County – MTA Translations ! Spanish ! Chinese ! Korean ! Vietnamese ! Russian ! Armenian ! Farsi Processing of Applications ! Eligibility determination made within 10 working days of the receipt of the application ! U.S. citizenship is not a condition of eligibility for free and reduced price benefits ! Eligibility may be determined by categorical eligibility (CalWORKs, food stamps, FDPIR, foster child) or by income and household size ! Household must be notified of eligibility Workload Reduction Provided to School Sites !Meal applications processed at Beaudry – 60,000; 26,386 scanned !Siblings certified – 1,600 !Direct Certification – 159,000 !Provision 2 – 173,728 Confidentiality !Information on meal application is confidential !Aggregate information may be disclosed to any program or individual !Prior parental consent is required in some cases Non-Compliance Issues !USDA APB: SP 02-02; Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations Section 245.5: “A school nutrition sponsor may not require households to submit an application to participate in school nutrition programs.” Non-Compliance Issues ! 7CFR, Chap 11, 245.6 (2): “…the person signing the application certifies that all information furnished in the application is true and correct, that the application is being made in connection with the receipt of Federal funds, that school officials may verify the information on the application, and that deliberate misrepresentation of the information may subject the applicant to prosecution under State and Federal statutes.” Verification ! Confirmation of eligibility ! Annually, SFA must select and verify a sample of applications ! Verification efforts must be completed by December 15 ! Under random sampling, the SFA must verify a minimum of the lesser of 3 percent or 3,000 of the total number of approved applications 2002 – 2003 Verification Results !Number of Households Verified - 3,103 !Household cleared – 1,316 (42%) !Households terminated – 1,787 (58%) – – – – Free to ineligible – 61 Reduced Price to ineligible – 40 Withdrew from program – 3 No response – 1,683 Over-certification !The U.S. Congress is concerned about the number of children approved for free or reduced price meals who may not be eligible based on other poverty indicators such as the Current Population Survey (CPS). Over-certification !In 1999, the percentage of children determined to be eligible for free meals was estimated to be 127% of the CPS estimate of school-aged children at or below 130% of the poverty guidelines (income level required for free participation) Over-certification !The USDA’s Office of Inspector General determined that in one state nearly 20% of the approved free or reduced price meal applications selected for verification resulted in a loss of those benefits because either the households did not respond or benefits were changed if they did respond. 2002/03 Free Reduced Eligibility County Kern Los Angeles Orange Riverside Sacramento San Bernardino San Diego San Francisco Ventura % Free and Reduced 60% 62% 39% 50% 43% 51% 43% 59% 36% 2002-2003 Free/Reduced Eligibility – Major Cities Fresno Unified Long Beach Unified Los Angeles Unified Oakland Unified Sacramento City Santa Ana Unified San Francisco Unified San Diego Unified 76% 65% 75% 66% 63% 75% 59% 59% 2002-2003 Free/Reduced Eligibility – Neighboring School Districts Alhambra City Elem 66% Alhambra City High El Monte City Elem El Monte Union High Hawthorne Elementary Inglewood Unified Lynwood Unified Montebello Unified Pomona Unified 63% 80% 64% 84% 56% 62% 74% 69% Meal Eligibility Meal Eligibility 800000 700000 600000 744042 729700 714123 739210 691309 500,856 72.45% 506,532 70.93% 505,491 69.27% 483,915 65.04% 500000 479,055 64.81% 400000 300000 159,989 23.14% 200000 100000 0 30,464 4.41% 33,475 4.69% 211,147 28.38% 178,955 24.52% 174,096 24.38% 45,254 6.20% 48,980 6.58% 210,921 28.53% 49,234 6.66% 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 Enrollment 691309 714123 729700 744042 739210 Free Elig. 500856 506532 505491 483915 479055 Reduced Price 30464 33475 45254 48980 49234 Full Price 159989 174096 178955 211147 210921 Projected Title 1 Eligibility Title 1 Category 65% + 40% - 64% SIS 12/18/02 261 85 Below 40% 63 Other (1) 57 Total 466 SIS 10/31/03 256 114 Survey 10/31/03 296 98 96 0 466 72 0 466 (1) (1)Includes Includes11Special Specialed, ed,33continuation continuationhigh highschools schoolsand and52 52Provision Provision22schools schools
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