Verification Process Summer Institute, New Directors Training Ebonique Faria Kevin Dawson

ESE Summer Institute Annual Verification Process At the beginning of each school year, households with school aged children who have not been directly certified have the option to apply for free or reduced price meals. Applications approved by districts as of October 1 st are subject to the annual verification process. Each LEA must annually verify the eligibility of children from a sample of household applications approved for free or reduced price meal benefits for that school year. The Verification Summary Report must be submitted to ESE by the established annual due date. Refer to the Eligibility Manual for School Meals for more information.Eligibility Manual for School Meals

General Requirements  Annually, each Local Education Agency (LEA) must select and verify a sample of all applications approved for benefits.  The basic sample size would be the lesser of: 3% of ALL approved applications (as of October 1 st ) selected from “error prone” applications or, 3,000 approved error prone applications.  Error prone applications would be those that are within $100 of the monthly income guidelines.

Timeline for Verification October 1October 2October 12October 22October 31 November 15 January 4, 2014 Select Sample Size Letters mailed to households Households deadline for response Deadline for LEA to notify households Date eligible benefit change to take effect Verification report completed Submitted on Security Portal Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 4

Security Portal Compliance Packet Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 5

6 School Nutrition Overview – Direct Verification  Massachusetts now requires all LEAs to conduct direct verification using the EOHHS Virtual Gateway for households selected for annual verification.  Direct Verification uses records from public agencies to verify household income for continued program participation.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 7 School Nutrition Overview – Direct Verification  Direct verification must be conducted through the EOHHS Virtual Gateway prior to contacting households to request verification documentation.  Only households with students that are unable to be directly verified through the Virtual Gateway need to be verified by the paper application process.  LEAs must not verify more than or less than the required number of applications that were determined to be needed.  Verification conducted ‘for cause’ is done in addition to the required verification.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 8 School Nutrition Overview – Direct Verification  The LEA must only submit the names for school children certified for free or reduced price meal benefits listed on the application.  The names of other household members (all adults, children who are not attending school, or children not approved for free or reduced price meals) cannot be submitted for direct verification purposes.  If information obtained through direct verification of an application for free or reduced price meal benefits indicates a child is participating in one of these programs, no additional verification is required. The eligibility status of the child or children listed on the application is considered verified.  The information used for direct verification must be the most recent information available which is defined as data which is no older than 180 days prior to the date of the free and reduced price application.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 9 Virtual Gateway Direct Verification  Direct Verification Steps:  Logon to Virtual Gateway  Under Business Service, click “My Account Page” (MAP)  Options to upload Direct Verification list  1) Manual Upload  Manually type in student first name, middle initial (optional), last name, DOB (mm/dd/yyyy), SNP (School Nutrition Program) Status (F or R)  10 names per page is max amount for manual upload at a time  Repeat as necessary  2) File Upload  Prepare file for upload using provided template and save in.csv format  5000 records per spreadsheet is max amount for file upload at a time  Repeat as necessary  Follow all existing policies and procedures surrounding Direct Verification. Refer to Eligibility Manual for School Meals for more information.Eligibility Manual for School Meals

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 10 New Process: VG Match History for Direct Verification

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 11 New Process: VG Manual Direct Verification Refer to Key to Understanding Direct Certification and Direct Verification Match History Results Reference Guide for more information on Match Types.

12 New Process: VG Manual Direct Verification Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

13 New Process: VG File Upload Direct Verification

Reporting the FNS-742 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 14

Section 1 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 15

Section 2 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 16

Section 3 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 17

Section 4 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 18

Section 5 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 19

Submit the completed form Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 20

Questions? Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 21