ATTENTION SUPERINTENDENTS; CHILD NUTRITION DIRECTORS; DATA STEWARDS (SIS, eSCHOOL, eFINANCE, TRIAND)

All Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) are required to report the number of Identified Students by school using data from a date selected by the district beginning April 1, 2020, through June 15, 2020, for EACH school in the LEA. LEAs are to use the same date for all schools.

Districts were notified by Suzanne Davidson via email on March 26, 2020, at 1:27pm of the ability to delay the reporting requirement.  Districts electing to delay this required reporting were asked to “opt in” by responding as directed to the email. Districts that have not already “opted in” may continue to do so through April 1, 2020.

All Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) who participate in programs authorized by the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act must report the percentage of students eligible to receive meals at no charge to the family through direct certification or categorical lists.  LEAs are required to provide this information through Identified Student Percentage (ISP) reporting. Section 104(a) of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 amended the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to provide the Community Eligibility Provision as an alternative to household applications for free and reduced price meal eligibility in high poverty LEAs and schools.

Identified Students:  Identified Students are students certified for free meals based on documentation of benefit receipt or categorical eligibility, including students who are directly certified for free meals based on receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), students who are categorically eligible for free meals based on Homeless, Runaway, Migrant, Foster, Head Start, and Even Start status. This includes students from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12.

• Identified Students include:  any student living in the household of a SNAP directly certified student. Any student entered into the direct certification portal manually and deemed an “exact match”.

• Identified Students DO NOT INCLUDE: students who are eligible based on submission of a SNAP meal application or income application.

The following documents should be available before beginning the completion of the report.

1. Direct Certification (DC) lists for 2019 – 2020 school year.  DC reports were made available on August 6, 2019; September 16, 2019; January 27, 2020; April 1, 2020; and June 1, 2020.  LEAs are required to use at least three of these pulls to update eSchool student eligibility status.
2. Categorical lists pulled on a specific date from April 1, 2020, through June 15, 2020.  Each list should be signed and dated by the district liaison for the designated group:  Homeless, Migrant, Foster, Runaway, Head Start or Even Start.  This is documentation of a student’s status as of the pull date from April 1, 2020, through June 15, 2020.
3. Cognos Meal Status Report for a specific date pulled April 1, 2020, through June 15, 2020.
4. School Enrollment Roster for a specific date pulled April 1, 2020, through June 15, 2020.
5. Cognos Family Address List (This report is not required but is beneficial when determining students who live in the same household.)
6. Instant Matches from the DC portal dated June 15, 2020, or earlier.
7. Any other documentation that allows a student not on the DC list to be classified as “04” in the meal status report.

June 15^th Notification and Data Collection:

To complete the required reports, each LEA must use:

1. District-level eligibility data provided to LEAs by Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Child Nutrition Unit (DESE,CNU), and
2. School-Level eligibility data provided to DESE, CNU by LEAs

Reporting of Identified Students by School:

Attachment A – 2020 ISP District Notification Report provides the LEA the district-wide percentage of Identified Students based on FNS-742 Verification Collection Report and the FNS-834 State Agency (National School Lunch Program (NSLP) / Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Direct Certification Rate Data Element Report, submitted by LEAs during SY 2019-20.  This information indicates identified students for October 1, 2019.  This information is for district comparison only.

Attachment B - 2020 ISP School Level Annual Notification Report must be submitted to DESE, CNU no later than June 15, 2020.  Please read the instructions tab as well as the instructions on the top of the form carefully.

Email the completed report to DESE, CNU at ade.chnutcep@arkansas.gov.

By June 30, 2020, DESE, CNU is required to publish the lists of LEAs and schools who are eligible or near-eligible for the Community Eligible Provision (CEP) on the CNU website and submit these lists to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) for publication on UDSA FNS’ CEP website.

Attachments

A – 2020 ISP District Notification Report
B – 2020 ISP School Level Annual Notification Report

Attachments