Team Up with Child Nutrition to increase E-Rates Taking simple steps to assure your district is receiving maximum funding. Presented by: Stephanie N. Robinson Director, School Support Division

Certification of Eligibility for Free Meal Benefits Benefits can be issued using one of following eligibility methods: 1. Electronic Direct Certification System (SNAP) or (TANF) including the extension of such benefits to ALL household members 2. Homeless/migrant/runaway/Head Start/foster child listing. 3. Household Eligibility Application a. Based on household income b. Based on valid SNAP or TANF case numbers provided on application. MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

Direct Certification  Direct certification is the process used when LEAs certify children who are members of households receiving assistance under the SNAP and/or TANF as eligible for free school meals.  Direct certification is accomplished by an LEA identifying a child as eligible for free meals through a computer match with SNAP/TANF information. MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

Direct Certification  By law, all LEAs participating in the National School Lunch Program must utilize the direct certification process.  Direct certification must be conducted at least three times annually. MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

Benchmarks Direct certification performance benchmarks. State agencies must meet performance benchmarks for directly certifying for free school meals children who are members of households receiving assistance under SNAP. The performance benchmarks are as follows: (1) 80% for the school year beginning July 1, 2011; (2) 90% for the school year beginning July 1, 2012; and (3) 95% for the school year beginning July 1, 2013, and for each school year thereafter. MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

In , Mississippi’s direct certification rate was 77%.

Your Recipe for Success 1. Meet with your Food Service Administrator (SFSA) to see if they need your help. 2. They may simply be hesitant to ask for your help. 3. The monthly import is posted to SharePoint, from there the SFSA will pull it into their local software program. Sometimes they have difficulties with this process because they do not have the technical skills to expedite the process. So they will elect to proceed manually! 4. Manual labor takes time!!! If you can help them to take the import it will take minutes to pull in the data and they can easily start the reference process, BUT more than anything meal services can be provided almost instantly to children that need them! 5. At the end of the day your district has worked as a Team to provide a valuable service to the students we serve and it will provide money for your district. 6. This is easy money for all parties…IF everyone will agree to work together. Our GOAL is 95% ! MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

E-Rate Percentage A B Courtesy of Lee Bray, MDE-Office of Management Information Systems MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

Looking at the sample school: If you bring your number of eligible students up by 1:  As shown in the previous example, the matching percentage increased from 80% to 90%.  If your matching dollar amount was 100, that would free up another 10,000. of district funds. Every student counts! MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

Locating Your District Data  Go to the MDE website at:  From the dropdown (Select MDE Office) on the right, select Management Information Systems  Under “Quick Links” on the left, select “Mississippi E-Rates”  Under “What’s New” in the center of the page select, “ E-Rate Census Discount Calculations- 2013” MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013

Working together is what is “BEST” for our Students! Thank you…… Office of Child Nutrition Stephanie N. Robinson, Director, Division of School Support MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013