Developing and Evaluating Methods for Using American Community Survey Data to Support the School Meals Programs Interim Report (2010) / Chapter Skim
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2 The School Meals Programs
2 The School Meals Programs
Pages 12-31
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From page 12... ...
CONCEPTuAL FRAMEWORK Figure 2-1 illustrates the flow of the process from determining the eligibility of students to serving them nutritionally qualified meals, noting that there are different distributions of students and meals served across the free, reduced-price, and full-price meal categories at each point. The first two boxes and the first oval in the figure reflect distributions based on all enrolled students; the second oval and last box relate to average daily meals served.
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From page 13... ...
Certification errors CO: Approved Students -- Observed Participation MO: Meals Served -- Observed Under Traditional Approach Participation Response to Universal Free Meals MU: Meals Served -- Universal Free Meals (Unobserved) FIguRE 2-1 School meals process and distributions of enrolled students and meals served across free, reduced-, and full-price categories: traditional approach and universal free meals.
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From page 14... ...
On any given day, a student may bring a meal from home or purchase a meal that does not qualify for reimbursement because it does not satisfy the nutritional requirements of the school meals programs. Hence, schools must count the total number of reimbursable meals served each day and note whether each child taking a meal is approved for a free or reducedprice meal or must pay full price.
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From page 15... ...
, "MU: Meals Served -- Universal Free Meals (Unobserved) ," represents the participation distribution when meals are provided for free to all students.
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From page 16... ...
For example, Washington State conducts direct certification monthly. As discussed below, certification for free meals remains effective for the rest of the school year and for up to 30 days into the next school year.
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From page 17... ...
TAbLE 2-1 Percentage of Enrolled Students by Approval Status for School Meals Programs, FY 2005-2009 Fiscal Approved for Approved for Must Pay Year Free Meals Reduced-Price Meals Full Price for Meals 2009 40.2 8.7 51.1 2008 37.9 8.6 53.5 2007 37.1 8.3 54.6 2006 37.8 8.4 53.8 2005 37.1 8.1 54.8 NOTE: Approval status for school meals programs includes both the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. SOURCE: Tabulation from the Food and Nutrition Service National Data Bank provided to the panel, February 4, 2010.
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From page 18... ...
By 1998, the number of students approved for free meals was 127 percent of the number of students who were estimated as being income eligible for free meals, and the number of students approved for free or reduced-price meals was 102 percent of the number of students who were estimated as being income eligible for free or reduced-price meals. These results were interpreted as evidence that there was overcertification in the school meals programs and contributed to the passage of the Improper Payments Act of 2002, which requires that various federal agencies identify and reduce erroneous payments in their programs (National Research Council, 2009:14)
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From page 19... ...
. Erroneous payments may arise because of certifica tion errors due to household reporting, administrative mistakes, or noncertification errors in counting and claiming payment for reimbursable meals.
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From page 20... ...
in a month by the total number of enrolled students approved in that category shows consistently higher participation by students approved for free meals, followed by students approved for reduced-price meals, followed by students having to pay full price. While the participation rates in Table 2-4 are based on meals served divided by .927 (in the numerator)
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From page 21... ...
are about 80 percent for stu dents approved for free meals, about 70 percent for students approved for reduced-price meals, and about 45 percent for students who pay full price. Participation rates decline considerably as students get older.
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From page 22... ...
For high school students, participation rates were lowest of all, except that the participation rate of high school students eligible for a reduced-price meal was no lower than the corresponding middle school participation rate TAbLE 2-5 Target Day Participation Rates in the NSLP (percentage of enrolled students) from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study-III -- by Income Level, Meal Category, and School Level All Income/Meal Category Elementary Middle High Students Income Relative to Poverty Guideline: Less than or equal to 130 percent 86.9 71.7 55.5 75.7 Between 130 and 185 percent 86.5 63.5 64.1 75.5 More than 185 percent 62.1 54.6 36.3 52.6 Receipt of Meals (parent report)
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From page 23... ...
Consequently, one might expect the rate of increased participation from providing free meals to all students to be greatest for students who formerly had to pay for their meals, followed by reduced-price-eligible students, followed by students already eligible for free meals. COuNTINg, CLAIMINg, AND REIMbuRSEMENT The meal counting process begins when the cashier determines whether a child's meal qualifies as a reimbursable meal (by satisfying the nutritional requirements described in Chapter 1)
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From page 24... ...
SPECIAL PROvISIONS FOR OPERATINg THE SCHOOL MEALS PROgRAMS For determining claiming percentages for reimbursement from USDA for free, reduced-, and full-price meals, schools, groups of schools, or entire school districts may choose to participate in one of three special provisions instead of following the traditional procedures for eligibility determination and meal counting. Typically, they apply for these provisions through the state.
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From page 25... ...
. During the next 3 years, the school makes no new eligibility determinations or verification checks and counts only the total number of reimbursable meals served each day.11 Reimbursement during these years is determined by applying the percentages of free, reduced-, and full-price meals served during the corresponding month of the base year to the total count of reimbursable meals for the claiming month.
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From page 26... ...
One pilot project in the School District of Philadelphia is ongoing and is relevant to the panel's work. This district has a hybrid system with one-third of schools operating under the traditional procedures and two-thirds of schools providing free meals to all students and developing claiming percentages by combining information about students in households that were directly certified for free meals with information from a household survey designed to determine eligibility for free and reduced-price meals (Reinvestment Fund, 2007)
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From page 27... ...
, federal financial assistance to school districts is calculated as the total number of reimbursable meals served to students approved as eligible for free, reduced-, or full-price meals multiplied by the applicable meal reimbursement rates. Thus, federal government outlays (G)
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From page 28... ...
Under Provision 3, meals served by category are estimated by using meals served in the same month of the base year multiplied by a factor reflecting the change in enrollment and inflation since the base year. Therefore, the reimbursement formula for Provision 3 is G3t = Rf dMf0,t + Rr dMr0,t + Rp dMp0,t where • G3t is the government outlay in month t for Provision 3 schools, in dollars; • Rf, Rr, and Rp are reimbursement rates as defined above; • Mf0,t is the total number of free meals served in month t of the base year; • Mr0,t is the total number of reduced-price meals served in month t of the base year; • Mp0,t is the total number of full-price meals served in month t of the base year; and • d is a ratio adjustment factor (ratio of current value to base year value)
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From page 29... ...
If sufficiently accurate estimates of eligibility can be derived from the ACS and other data, the following formula, similar to the formula used for the two-thirds of Philadelphia schools operating no-fee programs, was described to the panel by FNS as one that the agency would consider using to determine reimbursement for a school, group of schools, or an entire district that provides universal free meals under a new special pro vision, which we term Provision 4: Ef Ep Er Ge 4t = R f Mt + R r Mt + R p M Et E E where • Ge4t is the government outlay for reimbursable meals served in month t in Provision 4 schools, based on eligibility estimates, in dollars;
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From page 30... ...
Specifically, as illustrated in an example presented by FNS at the first meeting of the panel,14 districts might receive smaller reimbursements than they would with a "participation-based" equation, that is, an equation based on the distribution of meals served. Therefore, the panel will focus on a more general expression for the Provision 4 reimbursement formula:15 G p4t = R fC fM t + R rC rM t + R pC pM t where • Gp4t is the government outlay for reimbursable meals served in month t in Provision 4 schools, based on eligibility and participa tion estimates, in dollars; • Rf, Rr, and Rp are reimbursement rates as defined above; • Mt is the total number of reimbursable meals served in month t; • Cf is the claiming percentage for free meals, an estimate for the fraction of reimbursable meals served to students eligible for free meals; 14 FNS gave a hypothetical example of a school with 70 percent of the students eligible for free meals, 10 percent eligible for reduced-price meals, and 20 percent eligible for full-price meals.
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From page 31... ...
Having worked through the complex procedures and sets of steps for administering the NSLP and SBP programs under traditional and special provisions for reimbursement, one can see the potential advantages of an approach using existing data that could further reduce the burden on parents and schools and at the same time enable the school meals pro grams to serve additional students. The remaining chapters describe our technical approach for developing and evaluating methods for estimating the claiming percentages in the Provision 4 reimbursement equation.
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