Getting Started With Direct Certification  

How Food Service Directors in California Use Direct Certification

Introduction

Children participating in Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF or California Work Opportunity and Responsibility for Kids (TANF)), the Food Stamp Program, and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) are automatically eligible for free meals. Direct certification allows school districts to qualify these children for free meals without further application.  Under direct certification, school food service is relieved from processing and verifying applications from these children, greatly reducing time and resources spent on the yearly application and verification process.  Meal participation counts can increase as direct certification captures new children, and studies show that direct certification can increase both free and reduced price participation.  Direct certification benefits parents as well, relieving them of having to fill out confusing and time-consuming applications.  Most importantly, the health and academic benefits of nutritious school meals are brought free of charge to the children who need them most.

To gain insight into the direct certification process, California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA) interviewed school food service directors using direct certification in California.  Using this information, California Food Policy Advocates is working with the California Department of Social Services and the California Department of Education to help other food service directors in California implement direct certification.  This handout summarizes the steps in the direct certification process, and includes information on how food service directors in California make it work.

 

Step 1: The Identification Method

The first step in the direct certification process involves choosing a method to identify children in the school district who participate in TANF, the Food Stamp Program, or FDPIR.  Since many County Offices of Social Services or County Offices of Education already have a system in place for direct certification, it is important to find out what methods are currently being used in the county.  Food Stamp Program and TANF data are available from either your county office of education or county office of social services.  FDPIR information is available from the local Indian Tribal Council.  CFPA can help you find the individual responsible for making this information available.  If your county does not have a system in place, contact CFPA for assistance.

 

Step 2: Setting Up the Matching Process

The matching process requires that student enrollment data be cross-referenced with social services participation data.  This cross-referenced data is then entered in the school food services system.  School districts in California are most often sent lists of children in zip-code regions, which are then matched to the district’s enrollment.  These lists should be available in both hard copy and disc format. 

Matching the Data

Districts with enrollments greater than 10,000 tend to conduct a computer cross-match, while smaller districts tend to match by hand.  Because of inputting errors or differences in how names are reported (Jimmy Smith vs. Jim Smith, for example), computer cross-match will rarely capture 100% of eligible children.  Therefore, it is important to use as many criteria as possible.  Social security provides the most accurate match, but not all children submit this information to the school district.  Name, date of birth, address and parent’s name can also be used to identify eligible children.  Asking the school district to request for the name on the child’s birth certificate can be a great help.  It is a good idea to further inspect “partial matches”, or those that match some but not all of the criteria. 

A programmer is often needed to conduct a computer cross-reference.  There are many sophisticated matching programs used at the county and state level, and you can refer your district programmer to CFPA for more information.  Although matching can be conducted in-house, many school districts hire contractors to match names.  Many food service software vendors provide matching services.  School House and Meal Time are two such software packages.  For the food service directors in California, the fee is between $0.02 and $0.06 per name and outweighs the cost of processing those applications.  Contact CFPA for more information. 

Computer Compatibility and Information Exchange

District and county files must be compatible for a successful cross-reference.  County agencies and school districts are in a continual process of upgrading computer systems, and it is important to regularly communicate information needs and computer capabilities.  In many counties, food service directors meet yearly with the agency providing direct certification data to review data needs and formats. 

If information is not available in a usable format, consider hiring an outside contractor to conduct the matching electronically or format information.  The schools in Los Angeles County collectively hire a contractor to format and separate food stamp program data for each district. 

Step 3: Distributing Free Meal Applications

Many school districts continue to distribute free meal applications to all students, including directly certified students.  By law, the food service director is not required to distribute free meal applications to these students.  When applications are sent to these households, parents often fill out the meal applications and return them to the school.  If processed, the burden to the food service office is doubled and the time-saving benefits of direct certification are lost.

If possible, applications should not be provided to children in directly certified households.  In many districts, however, it is the individual school that distributes free meal applications in ‘first day of school’ packets.  Food service directors should explore ways to withhold applications from directly certified students in these schools without overtly identifying them.  In small school districts, directly certified children can be inadvertently identified by the school staff if applications are withheld from their packets.  In this case, applications must be included in all packets, including directly certified children, and communicating to parents that applications are not required for their directly certified children is very important.

Step 4: Communicating with Parents

Parental notification of directly certified status is an important and often overlooked step. Communication with parents becomes especially important if applications can not be withheld from directly certified students.  Although the state provides a form letter to notify parents of their children’s directly certified status, a single form notification is not sufficient.  Multiple notifications are best, and letters should be printed in languages of the region.  The form notification provided by the state should be modified to be easy to read and understand.  Notifications should be printed in color, and free meal applications should be modified to inform parents of direct certification and remind them that an application is not necessary if they received a colored notification.  Timing is important, and notifications should be sent out just prior to the start of the school year.  The food service director should also explore ways to deliver information on direct certification to parents when they enroll or receive social services benefits or at school events.  CFPA has materials that can help.  School food service directors using these methods have reported fewer returned free meal applications from directly certified students, and greater success with direct certification.

 Since the matching process uses previous year’s enrollment, newly enrolled students and kindergartners will not be directly certified.  These children need applications, even if their siblings are directly certified.  To avoid confusion, this should be clearly communicated to parents of directly certified students on notifications.  Parents of newly enrolled students or students otherwise missed by the matching procedure can use their TANF or Food Stamp Program Notice of Approval/Action form to directly certify these children.  A memo from the program officer listing the names of each child is necessary.

 

Note: Timing the Process is Important

Since direct certification requires that the food service director identify eligible students before the start of the school year, the matching process must be completed in the summer before applications for school meals are distributed.  Late receipt of lists causes many school districts to discontinue direct certification.  Since matching in the summer means using previous year’s enrollment, a second match can be run after the start of the school year to directly certify new students and new social services participants.


If you have any questions about direct certification, please contact the California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division at (800) 952-5609 or Aparna Waegner, California Food Policy Advocates, at (661) 799-1875.