Oct. 8, 2004
Role in Directly Certifying School-Age Food Stamp Recipients for the
National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs
SUBJECT: |
The Food Stamp Program’s Role in Directly Certifying
School-Age Food Stamp Recipients for the National School Lunch and
School Breakfast Programs |
TO: |
All Regional Directors Food Stamp
Program |
1 Introduction
This memorandum addresses two issues in the Food Stamp Program and the
National School Lunch / School Breakfast Programs. These issues are:
The recently enacted Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of
2004, P.L. 108-265 (June 30, 2004) amended the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act and the Food Stamp Act to make it easier for food stamp
households with school-age children in public and private schools to get
certified for free school meals and to have their school meal eligibility
verified.
The State agency that administers the school lunch and breakfast
programs must obtain information regarding the household’s participation
in the Food Stamp Program from the State agency that administers the Food
Stamp Program. The State agency administering the Food Stamp Program must
enter into an agreement with the State agency administering the school
lunch and breakfast programs. State and local food stamp agencies must
cooperate with these certification and verification efforts.
2 Direct Certification
Direct Certification is the process under which local education
agencies certify children who are members of households receiving
assistance under the Food Stamp Program, as eligible for free school
meals, without further application, based on information provided by the
State/local agency administering the Food Stamp Program.
Congress intended Direct Certification to foster and facilitate
participation in the Child Nutrition programs by simplifying access to
free meals for children in households already certified to receive food
stamps. This process reduces the burden for low-income families and for
schools and builds on a proven certification process that is more accurate
than a school-based application. Direct Certification has been shown to
accurately bring more children into the program.
Basic Legal Requirement
The recently enacted “Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of
2004” amended the Food Stamp Act by adding a new subsection (u) to Section
11. The text appears in Attachment 1. All state social services agencies
will be required to participate in Direct Certification.
Phasing In
Direct certification is optional until local education agencies are
required to directly certify children in food stamp households. Required
Direct Certification is phased in as follows:
The Provision Goes Into Effect In
|
For School Districts With
Enrollments of
|
|
At Least
|
In the School
Year
|
July, 2006
|
25,000 students
|
2005-2006
|
July, 2007
|
10,000 students
|
2006-2007
|
July 2008
|
All school districts
|
|
The state social services agency must enter into an agreement with the
state agency for school nutrition programs. The agreements will detail
exactly how the state social services agency and the state agency for
school nutrition programs will operate Direct Certification. Please note
that some states have separate agencies that administer public and private
schools. If so, an agreement must be taken with all agencies that
administer the school nutrition programs.
Methods of Direct Certification
Three methods are the most common. Some state social services agencies
and educational agencies use a mixture of methods.
-
The letter or non-matching method – the state social services agency
sends letters to households with school-age children. The letters state
that the children are members of food stamp households. Each household
then delivers the letter to the school if the household chooses to do
so. In some instances duplicate letters are also sent to the school.
-
District-level matching – the state social services agency and the
local educational authority match a list of school-age food stamp
recipients against a list of students.
-
State-level matching – the state social services agency and the
state educational authority match the lists of school-age food stamp
recipients and students.
Current Situation
Direct Certification is very common across the United States. In the
2001-2002 school year:
-
61% of school districts that participated in the school meals
programs used Direct Certification
-
68% of all students were enrolled in school districts that used
Direct Certification
-
Of school districts that did use Direct Certification
-
20% used the letter or non-matching method
-
41% used district-level matching
-
27% used state-level matching
-
12% mixed certification methods.
The type of Direct Certification that exists may be limited by the
particular circumstances of the state social services agency and the state
and local educational authorities. For example, in some states, individual
counties or groups of counties have their own computer systems that record
the names of food stamp clients. In such a state, state-level matching may
be difficult or impossible.
3 Direct Verification
Direct Verification is the process under which local education agencies
verifying household applications approved for free or reduced price school
meals use data maintained by the Food Stamp Program to verify the
household’s eligibility without contacting the household.
National School Lunch Program regulations require local educational
authorities to verify the eligibility of some children for free or reduced
price meals. Traditionally, households selected for verification have been
required to submit documents substantiating their income or their
participation in the Food Stamp Program (proof of participation in the
Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations or in the State’s
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) are also
acceptable). For children who receive food stamps, the state school
nutrition agency or local educational agency can request that the state /
local social services agency verify that the household does, in fact,
receive food stamps.
Direct Verification helps to reduce the number of terminations that
occur when a household fails to comply with procedural requirements. A
study from 2003 showed that half of the students that were selected for
verification did not respond to the request for verification. Of those who
did not respond, half were actually eligible. Direct Verification helps to
minimize this problem.
Basic Legal Requirement
The same Reauthorization Act contains the text in Attachment Two, which
provides for Direct Verification.
Basic Policy
A local educational authority may choose to verify a child’s food stamp
participation directly with the state / local social services agency.
If the local educational authority does choose Direct Verification, the
state social services agency must cooperate by making available
information from the child’s food stamp participation record.
By law, the state social services agency may not verify food stamp
participation using information that is more than 180 days old, measured
from the child’s date of application for meals in school.
When a state social services agency verifies that a child is a member
of a food stamp household, verification of the child’s eligibility for
free meals is complete. However, the new law also provides that to verify
eligibility for free and reduced price meals, the local educational agency
may obtain and use income and program participation information from a
public agency administering TANF and Medicaid. Some children who receive
free or reduced-price meals may receive benefits from the TANF or Medicaid
Programs, but not the Food Stamp Program. While this verification is not
strictly a food stamp function, in many states there will be a common
agreement to cover all three programs. The same 180-day limit on
verification will apply to information from TANF and Medicaid
No Phasing In
This procedure goes into effect for all state social services agencies,
on July 1, 2005.
Operational Requirements for State Social Services Agencies
State social services agencies and the state agencies for school
nutrition programs will need to coordinate their planning in those
jurisdictions where Direct Verification will occur.
When a local educational authority chooses to use Direct Verification,
the educational authority and social services agency will need to agree,
in advance, how to exchange information.
4 What We Would Like You to Do
-
Let your state social services agencies know that this requirement
exists, including the timetable for implementation.
-
Ask your state social services agencies what methods work well, or
not so well, for them when they conduct Direct Certification and Direct
Verification.
-
Ask for recommendations on what we can do to help them prepare for
Direct Certification and Direct Verification.
-
Identify a contact person in the Regional Office who will have
responsibility for coordinating policy and implementation issues for
Direct Certification and Direct Verification.
5 PDD’s Next Steps
Over the next few months we shall:
-
Address how frequently Direct Certification takes place, to account
for:
-
Children who move into the area during the school year and
-
Children who were not members of food stamp households at the
beginning of the school year, but whose households later began to
receive food stamps.
-
Combine the promising practices that you forward to
PDD, send the
compilation back to you, and post the information on the Food Stamp
Program home page.
-
Hold a televideo conference with your staff to encourage the sharing
of information and to address whatever issues your offices and the state
welfare agencies raise.
-
Issue an implementation memo, in cooperation with the Child
Nutrition Division.
-
Draft an interim rule, to incorporate this new requirement into the
Food Stamp Program’s regulations.
-
Coordinate all of our activities with our colleagues here who
administer the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
/S/ Arthur Foley
Arthur T. Foley
Director
Program Development
Division
Attachments
Attachment One
Direct Certification
Section 104(b)(2) of the Reauthorization Act added the following
Paragraph (u) to Section 11 of the Food Stamp Act
(u) AGREEMENT FOR DIRECT CERTIFICATION AND COOPERATION.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--Each State agency shall enter into an
agreement with the State agency administering the school lunch program
established under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42
U.S.C. 1751 et seq.).
(2) CONTENTS.--The agreement shall establish procedures that
ensure that--
(A) any child receiving benefits under this Act shall be certified
as eligible for free lunches under the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) and free breakfasts under
the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.), without
further application; and
(B) each State agency shall cooperate in carrying out paragraphs
(3)(F) and (4) of section 9(b) of the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)).
Attachment Two
Direct Verification
The Reauthorization Act added the following paragraph to Section
105(a)(3)
(F) DIRECT VERIFICATION.—
(i) IN GENERAL.--Subject to clauses (ii) and (iii), to verify
eligibility for free or reduced price meals for approved household
applications selected for verification, the local educational agency may
(in accordance with criteria established by the Secretary) first obtain
and use income and program participation information from a public
agency administering—
(I) the food stamp program established under the Food Stamp Act of
1977 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.);
(II) the food distribution program on Indian reservations
established under section 4(b) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C.
2013(b));
(III) the temporary assistance for needy families program funded
under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 601 et
seq.);
(IV) the State medicaid program under title XIX of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.); or
(V) a similar income-tested program or other source of information,
as determined by the Secretary.
(ii) FREE MEALS.--Public agency records that may be obtained
and used under clause (i) to verify eligibility for free meals for
approved household applications selected for verification shall include
the most recent available information (other than information reflecting
program participation or income before the 180-day period ending on the
date of application for free meals) that is relied on to administer--
(I) a program or source of information described in clause (i)
(other than clause (i)(IV)); or
(II) the State plan for medical assistance under title XIX of the
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.) in--
(aa) a State in which the income eligibility limit applied under
section 1902(l)(2)(C) of that Act (42 U.S.C. 1396a(l)(2)(C)) is not
more than 133 percent of the official poverty line described in
section 1902(l)(2)(A) of that Act (42 U.S.C. 1396a(l)(2)(A)); or
(bb) a State that otherwise identifies households that have
income that is not more than 133 percent of the official poverty
line described in section 1902(l)(2)(A) of that Act (42 U.S.C.
1396a(l)(2)(A)).
(iii) REDUCED PRICE MEALS.--Public agency records that may be
obtained and used under clause (i) to verify eligibility for reduced
price meals for approved household applications selected for
verification shall include the most recent available information (other
than information reflecting program participation or income before the
180-day period ending on the date of application for reduced price
meals) that is relied on to administer--
(I) a program or source of information described in clause (i)
(other than clause (i)(IV)); or
(II) the State plan for medical assistance under title XIX of the
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.) in--
(aa) a State in which the income eligibility limit applied under
section 1902(l)(2)(C) of that Act (42 U.S.C. 1396a(l)(2)(C)) is not
more than 185 percent of the official poverty line described in
section 1902(l)(2)(A) of that Act (42 U.S.C. 1396a(l)(2)(A)); or
(bb) a State that otherwise identifies households that have
income that is not more than 185 percent of the official poverty
line described in section 1902(l)(2)(A) of that Act (42 U.S.C.
1396a(l)(2)(A)).
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