SR 09-24 Dated 07/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION

SUMMARY

This SR releases the District and State Office procedures associated with a joint project with the Department of Education (DOE) to provide automatic enrollment for free school meals to school-age children in households receiving Financial Assistance to Needy Families (FANF) cash assistance and/or Food Stamps.

BACKGROUND

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (PL 108-265), henceforth referred to as the Act, required school districts to phase-in procedures to ensure that any child in a household receiving Food Stamp benefits was certified as eligible for free school meals without further application required by the family. NH chose to additionally include school-age children from households receiving FANF cash assistance in this automatic certification process as well. In 2006, the US Department of Agriculture awarded a financial grant to the DOE to collaborate with DFA to create provisions to implement the Act’s mandates. This grant was used to create an electronic system whereby demographic and program participation information of school-age children in FANF cash and/or Food Stamp households could be shared with the DOE, who would then provide certification information to the local school districts for the students listed as registered in the local schools.

GENERAL PROCESS

FANF cash assistance and/or Food Stamp households containing school-age children can be automatically enrolled for free school meals offered through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program (NSLP), if the household desires to be automatically enrolled in the program. The District and State Office procedures that were developed and New HEIGHTS changes that were made to allow DFA to offer this opportunity to FANF and Food Stamp households are described below.

DISTRICT OFFICE PROCEDURES

To ensure that each FANF or Food Stamp household with school-age children is provided the opportunity for automatic enrollment in the NSLP, the following new question has been added to the driver flow when the Family Services Specialist (FSS) is conducting an eligibility interview:

May the Department share your Family Cash or Food Stamp information with the Department of Education for enrollment in the National School Lunch Program?

For new applicants the question will have to be answered with a "Yes" or "No" entry. This question will only be mandatory for households containing school-age children and applying for FANF cash assistance or Food Stamps. For all other households, the question will not be mandatory.

Note: The client has the right to refuse this offer of automatic enrollment in the NSLP via sharing their child’s FANF cash or Food Stamp information with the DOE. If the client does not want this information shared with the DOE or school system, the FSS must choose "No" as an answer to this question. The parent may still complete a paper NSLP application for the free and reduced-cost meal program at the school, as this manual application method will still be available to families.

An answer of "Yes" to this question will allow automatic enrollment in the NSLP, if the household is determined eligible for FANF cash assistance or Food Stamps. The school-age children’s demographic and program participation information will be shared with the DOE, and the DOE will then place the children’s enrollment status information in electronic files accessible by the children’s school system. The parent or guardian will need to do nothing more.

Note: The household may choose to change their answer to this question at any time. Changes in the answer become effective as of confirmation of the response. For example, if a household has given permission to share information with the DOE and then later withdraws that permission, sharing of the information with the DOE ends as of the evening that the new restriction is confirmed in New HEIGHTS. However, information previously shared with the DOE will remain in the electronic files accessible by the child’s school system for the remainder of that school year.

STATE OFFICE PROCEDURES

The evening of July 13, 2009, after the daily run, all current FANF cash assistance and Food Stamp households with school-age children will have the school lunch consent question set to "Yes" in New HEIGHTS.

On July 16, 2009, a letter will be generated to all current FANF cash or Food Stamp households containing at least one school-age child. The letter will notify the household of this new opportunity for automatic enrollment in the NSLP and alert the household of the option to choose to refrain from having their child’s FANF cash or Food Stamp information shared with DOE. The families have been instructed to contact State Office if they do not want to take part in this automatic enrollment.

State Office staff will manually enter the response of those families that contact State Office to refuse automatic enrollment in NSLP during this implementation phase only. After August 26, 2009, the District Office will make all changes to a household’s response to the school lunch consent question.

NEW HEIGHTS SYSTEMS PROCEDURES

New HEIGHTS has made system changes to allow demographic and program participation information of school-age children in FANF cash and/or Food Stamp households to be shared with the DOE. The first School Lunch data file that will be shared with the DOE will be created on September 1, 2009. File sharing with the DOE will occur on a monthly basis thereafter.

Additionally, the following question has been added to the Eligibility Interview Summary (EIS) screen in New HEIGHTS, effective July 14, 2009: "May the Department share your Family Cash or Food Stamp information with the Department of Education for enrollment in the National School Lunch Program?" This question will require an answer for families applying for FANF cash or Food Stamps who have school-age children in the household. For assistance groups with no school-aged children or no FANF or Food Stamp benefit, the consent question will still appear on the EIS screen, but will not be mandatory.

The household’s selected response to the school lunch consent question will appear on the EIS summary document in a separate entry as follows: "School Lunch Program You told us you [want/do not want] your eligibility information to be shared with the Department of Education in order to enroll your child(ren) in the National School Lunch Program."

If the FSS confirms a closure or denial of FANF cash assistance and/or Food Stamps, then the system will automatically reset the question as unanswered. If the case is reactivated within 10 days of closure, then the system will automatically set the consent question back to the original value. If the household reapplies at a later date, the question will become mandatory again and require a response.

POLICY MANUAL REVISIONS

Revised Family Assistance Manual Topics

SRs Retained

Revised Food Stamp Manual Topics

SRs Retained

IMPLEMENTATION

New HEIGHTS will be implementing the changes released in this SR effective July 14, 2009.

CLIENT NOTIFICATION

On July 16, 2009 a one-time client letter will be generated to all current FANF cash and/or Food Stamp households with school-age children to inform them of this initiative and notify them of their ability to opt-out of having DFA share information about their child’s FANF cash and/or Food Stamp participation with the DOE and the school district. The letter is attached for reference.

Beginning July 14, 2009, FSS will ask any household with school-age children applying for FANF and/or Food Stamps whether the household wants their child’s demographic and program participation information shared with the DOE or school district for purposes of automatically enrolling the children in the NSLP.

TRAINING

No special training is planned or needed.

DISPOSITION

This SR may be destroyed or deleted after its contents have been noted and the SR has been posted to the On-line manual.

DISTRIBUTION

This SR will be distributed according to the electronic distribution list for Division of Family Assistance policy releases. This SR will be available for agency staff in the On-Line Manual Library, and for public access on the Internet at http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/DHHS/DFA/LIBRARY, effective August 3, 2009. Additionally, this SR will be distributed under separate cover to all internal hard copy holders of the Family Assistance and Food Stamp Manuals.

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