Free and Reduced Price Application Process

1
Free and Reduced Price Application Process

• Department of School and
• Community Nutrition

2
What Will be Covered

• We will cover the application process in a
  step-by step approach and will include specific
  information on where you can locate instructions
  and letters on our website for the following
  items
• Direct Certification
• Free and Reduced Price Application Completion
• Verification and Direct Verification

3
What Will be Covered

• This is our website www.doe.in.gov/food
• All of the links circled in red in todays
  presentation can be found by clicking on School
  Nutrition Programs

4
Eligibility Guidance Manual

• This manual contains information on Federal
  requirements regarding the determination and
  verification of eligibility for free and reduced
  price meals
• The Eligibility Guidance Manual can be found on
  our website under Free and Reduced Price
  Information
• Will answer questions that we wont cover today
  on topics such as homeless, migrant, adopted, and
  foster children and how to handle those
  applications
• Have a copy on hand, it is invaluable!!

5
Direct Certification

• Alternative to (replaces) the traditional paper
  application for free meals
• Students can be certified eligible for a FREE
  lunch (not reduced) without the parent having to
  complete an application or the school having to
  approve an application
• Based on food stamp/TANF benefits

6
Direct Certification

• Run direct certification in July
• Direct certification how-to manuals can be found
  on our website
• Click on Free and Reduced Price Forms under
  Free and Reduced Price Information
• Click on Direct Certification Manual if you plan
  to upload your student master list
• Click on Direct Certification STN Quick Start if
  you plan to use your student master list from the
  previous school year
•  

7
Direct Certification

• Two methods for Direct Certification
• STN
• Uses enrolled student information available at
  DOE (Spring data from the prior school year)
• Traditional
• In this method the school district extracts a
  more current list of data anticipating fall
  enrollment from their student database and
  uploads the data first to the STN Application
  Center.
• After the list is uploaded, this information is
  used to match against the Food Stamp and TANF
  rolls. Results are more accurate, but it takes
  an extra step.
• First time users, particularly smaller parochial
  schools will find the STN Method easier and
  adequate.
• Both are hosted within the Department of
  Educations STN (Student Test Number) Application
  Center at https//ac.doe.state.in.us/
• Find out who files the required STN reports for
  your school, this is the person who will have a
  User ID and Password for the STN Application
  Center.

8
https//ac.doe.state.in.us/
9
File Upload for Traditional Method
You may not see all these choices, depending on
the permissions you have been given.
10
1. Pressing the browse button will open a
file open dialogue box where you will select
your master list file
2. Uploaded data files can be Comma Delimited,
Fixed Length (Positional) or XML. This step is
OPTIONAL and used only in the Traditional
Method.
3. Press Transfer Data
11
Request the download of matching data
Direct Certification Download can now be found
under the Administration menu tab
12
If you uploaded a file, request Traditional
Match If you did not upload a file, select STN
Match
13
Most of you will probably select Comma
Delimited The file will probably open up locally
on your PC as an Excel Spreadsheet
14
At the Beginning of the year youll want to
select Retrieve all Matches
New Feature! You can now rerun Direct
Certification at any time of the year and if you
dont want to see all the previously reported
names, select Retrieve only new matches
15
Direct Certification

•  

• After download is performed and you have the list
  of directly certified students
• Send letter to household with notification that
  children are directly certified for free benefits
  and an application does not need to be completed
• Letter can be found on our websiteunder free and
  reduced price forms
• Under School Meal Benefits, Click on direct
  certification

16
Direct Certification

• If one or more children in a household are not on
  the direct certification list attempt to locate
  the missing siblings with the Direct
  Certification Lookup feature found on the Lookup
  Menu. Search by Food Stamp Case number in most
  cases, since you already know the familys Case
  Number. If you can locate the student this way,
  they too can be directly certified, otherwise the
  un-certified siblings will need an application.
  Where you locate a student with Lookup, be sure
  to print out and save the documentation of
  eligibility.
• Parents/Guardians may decline benefits or request
  reduced benefits
• Document by source
• Initial and date
• Meals are claimed at the status the
  parents/guardians requested

17
Direct Certification

• Lookup Feature
• Can help you identify individual students in a
  flexible mannerfor instance
• If one child in a family of three or four isnt
  matched when all the siblings are. Maybe one
  child had a birth date typed wrong, or the one
  child has a different last name in the food stamp
  records, but not on the school records, or the
  missing child is a new kindergartener.
• You need to quickly search when a new child is
  admitted to your school at some time other than
  the first of the year.

18
Lookup Direct Certification
19
Search by
Case Number if you know it
Student Information
Guardian Information
20
Click on the view icon to display the results
21
Print this screen and save a paper copy with your
applications.
22
Free/Reduced Price Applications

• Send an application and parent letter/instructions
  to each household either by mail or insert into
  enrollment packet
• Every student should get one, but do not send to
  households that are directly certified
• The application and parent letter/instructions
  can be foundon our website under Free
  andReduced Price Information, Free and Reduced
  Price Forms
• Then click on Application for Meals and Parent
  Letter/Instructions Meals under School Meal
  Benefits

23
Free/Reduced Price Applications

• As you receive applications, cross check with
  your direct certification list and disregard any
  applications for households that have been
  directly certified
• Applications must be processed within 10 days of
  receipt
• Applications from the prior year are only valid
  for the first 30 operating days of the school
  year (beginning with the first day of school)

24
Free/Reduced Price Applications

• Make sure each application is complete and
  includes the following
• EACH childs name and school they attend
• Food stamp number written in for EACH child if
  applicable (food stamp number begins with 10 and
  is 10 digits long)
• List ALL family members and income for each or
  check box if no income
• Select frequency of pay, weekly, bi-weekly,
  monthly, annual (bi-monthly is not a selection so
  if you are unsure of frequency, contact the
  household to verify)
• Adult signature
• Social security number for income eligible
  applications or check box if no social security
  number
• Date signed

25
Free/Reduced Price Applications

• Use the income guidelines to calculate the
  benefit
• The income guidelines can be found on our
  website under Free and Reduced Price Information
• If frequencies of pay differ, calculate annual
  pay
• Weekly gross income X 52
• Every two weeks gross income X 26
• Twice a month (bi-monthly) gross income X 24
• If a household reports zero income temporarily
  approve the application for no more than 45 days
  and flag it for follow-up
• Complete the eligibility determination on the
  back of the application and sign
• File your applications by building

26
Withdrawals

• When a student withdraws, pull the application,
  document the withdrawal date and file in a
  withdrawn file

27
Verification

• At the beginning of October, pull your sample for
  verification
• Do a confirmation review to determine that the
  original eligibility was correctly determined
• This step must be performed by someone other than
  the original approving official
• Exception requirement waived if the LEA uses a
  technology based solution that makes accurate
  eligibility determinations
• If the initial determination is incorrect, the
  LEA must
• Correct the households eligibility status
• Notify the household of the change and explain
  changes and
• Allow households to reapply and provide
  documentation
• Select another application to verify
• Make copies of the application(s) selected for
  verification and place the originals in a
  separate file labeled verification

28
Verification

• Three types of verification
• Standard select 3 of error prone applications
• Error prone applications are those that are
  within 100 of the monthly amount or 1200 of the
  yearly amount on the income eligibility
  guidelines
• Flag your error-prone applications when
  processing in August
• Alternate/Random randomly select 3 of
  applications
• This method may only be used if you had less than
  20 non-responders last year on verification
• Alternate/Focused select 1 of error-prone apps
  plus .5 of categorical apps
• This method may only be used if you had less than
  20 non-responders last year on verification
• Categorical apps are those approved with a food
  stamp number

29
Verification

• Verification for cause
• In addition to your sample size you are required
  to verify any suspect applications.
• Applications with inconsistencies or questions
  about required information
• Must be denied unless questions are resolved
• May be verified for cause anytime during the
  school year

30
Direct Verification

• After selecting your sample applications for
  verification perform direct verification by using
  the Lookup feature in the STN database to
  determine if any of the applications selected are
  eligible based on food stamp , TANF, or Medicaid
  benefits
• If you find a household listed and the
  information confirms the status of the
  application, print the information and attach to
  the application, that application is now verified
  and can be filed in your verification folder (you
  only need to verify one student on a
  multi-student family application to consider the
  application verified)
• If you do not find the household listed, a
  verification letter must be sent to the household

31
Select Direct Verification

• Unlike direct certification which matches against
  the most current Food Stamp and TANF data, Direct
  Verification searches back 180 days from the date
  of application, therefore, the date the
  parent/guardian signed the application is
  important.

32
Search by
Case Number if you know it
Student Information
Guardian Information
33
Click on the view icon to display the results
34

• Print this page and attach to the original
  application
• Complete the verification section on the back of
  the application
• Refile the application in your verification file

35
Verification

• Verification instructions can be found on our
  website under Free and Reduced Price Information
• Click on verification information
• Under Verification Questions, AnswersInformation
  andPolicies, click on Verification How To

36
Verification

• Verification notification letters can be found
  on our website under Free and Reduced Price
  Information
• Click on Verification Information, then click
  on We Must Check Your Application under
  Verification--Meals

37
Verification

• When you receive verification of income,
  calculate benefit based on the income
• If the household benefits change from F-R or are
  terminated you must notify the household and
  change the benefit after 10 days of notification
• If the household benefits change from R-F, you
  must notify the household in 3 days and change
  the benefit immediately
• In the event that a household does not respond,
  follow up with a phone call
• If the household still doesnt respond or is
  uncooperative, they must be removed from the
  program

38
Verification

• After verification is complete, households must
  be notified if benefits stay the same, change, or
  are terminated
• The letter notifying a household of their benefit
  after verification can be found onour website
  under Free and Reduced Information
• Click on We Have Checked Your Application
  underVerification -- Meals

39
Verification

• Verification must be complete by November 15
• The verification summary must be submitted to our
  office by December 15
• The verification summary andinstructions for
  completing can be found on our website under
  Free and Reduced Price Information
• Click on Summary Report orInstructions under
  Verification Reporting
• Save the file to your computer
• Email the completed verification summary to the
  office by December 15

40

• In accordance with federal law and U.S.
  Department of Agriculture policy, this
  institution is prohibited from discriminating on
  the basis of race, color, national origin, sex,
  age, or disability.
• To file a complaint, write USDA, Director, Office
  of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW,
  Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call 800-795-3272
  or 202-720-6382 (TTY). USDA is an equal
  opportunity provider and employer.
• It is the policy of the Indiana Department of
  Education not to discriminate on the basis of
  race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age,
  or disability, in its programs, activities, or
  employment policies as required by the Indiana
  Civil Rights Laws (I.C. 22-9-1), Title VI and VII
  (Civil Rights Act of 1964), the Equal Pay Act of
  1973, Title IX (Educational Amendments), Section
  504 (Rehabilitation Act of 1973), and the
  Americans with Disabilities Act (42 USCS
  12101,et.seq.).
• Inquiries regarding compliance by the Indiana
  Department of Education with Title IX and other
  civil rights laws may be directed to the Human
  Resources Director, Indiana Department of
  Education, 151 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, IN
  46204, or by telephone to 317-232-6610, or the
  Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S.
  Department of Education, 111 North Canal Street,
  Suite 1053, Chicago, IL 60606-7204 -Dr. Tony
  Bennett, State Superintendent of Public
  Instruction.