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

295,289 (53%)226,991 (41%)

Paper Applications

87,353 (16%)75,277 (17%)

Direct Certification

173,728 (31%)250,605 (45%)

Provision 2

556,370

(75% needy)

552,873

(75% needy)

Total Free and

Reduced Price

737,516739,210

Total Enrollment

October 31, 2003October 31, 2002

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 9,000

!FY 03 146,000 July 2002

75,277 December 2002

!FY 04 159,000 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

62%Los Angeles

50%Riverside

39%Orange

43%Sacramento

36%Ventura

59%San Francisco

51%San Bernardino

60%Kern

43%San Diego

% Free and ReducedCounty

2002-2003 Free/Reduced

Eligibility – Major Cities

66%Oakland Unified

59%San Francisco Unified

75%Santa Ana Unified

63%Sacramento City

76%Fresno Unified

59%San Diego Unified

75%Los Angeles Unified

65%Long Beach Unified

2002-2003 Free/Reduced Eligibility

– Neighboring School Districts

63%Alhambra City High

66%Alhambra City Elem

69%Pomona Unified

62%Lynwood Unified

56%Inglewood Unified

84%Hawthorne Elementary

74%Montebello Unified

80%El Monte City Elem

64%El Monte Union High

Meal Eligibility

691309 714123 729700 744042 739210

479,055

64.81%

483,915

65.04%

505,491

69.27%

506,532

70.93%

500,856

72.45%

49,234

6.66%

48,980

6.58%

45,254

6.20%

33,475

4.69%

30,464

4.41%

210,921

28.53%

211,147

28.38%

178,955

24.52%

174,096

24.38%

159,989

23.14%

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

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

1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003

Projected Title 1 Eligibility

466466466Total

0057Other (1)

729663Below 40%

981148540% - 64%

29625626165% +

Survey

10/31/03

SIS

10/31/03

SIS

12/18/02

Title 1

174096 Meals

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