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
MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013
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.
In 2010-2011,
Mississippi’s
direct
certification
rate was
77%.
MIS DATA CONFERENCE 2013
Your Recipe for Success
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Meet with your Food Service Administrator (SFSA) to see if they
need your help.
They may simply be hesitant to ask for your help.
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!
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!
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.
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 100,000.00
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:
http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/mde-home
 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 Calculations2013”
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
601-576-4955