School Nutrition Newsletter
June 3, 2020
COVID-19 Information and Updates
- The COVID-19 Newsletter page continues to be updated.
- P-EBT Update
- May claims
- New Team Nutrition resource on serving multiple meals at one time
- Food, Fun, and Creativity during COVID-19 SNA Article
- Sad, Mad, Bad, and Occasionally RAD SNA Article
- CARES Act Information
- New Workplace Safety and Policy Resources from School Food Handler
IDOE - Planning for the Unknown in School Year 2020-2021 Webinar
- IDOE, in partnership with Sara Gasiorowski, Child Nutrition Director at MSD of Wayne Township, will be holding a webinar on Wednesday, June 10 at 1:00 p.m. ET to provide guidance on how to prepare for school year 2020-2021.
- IDOE will provide the most up to date information about school year 2020-2021 from USDA and the Indiana Department of Health.
- To help schools prepare for school year 2020-2021, Sara will share tips and best practices to help schools prepare for the unknown and start putting a plan in place depending on a variety of potential school setting operations.
- Click here to register.
- Questions? Contact the IDOE Training Team at SCNTrainings@doe.in.gov.
DIRECT CERTIFICATION (DC) DATA UPDATED
- The newest DC data is available to download in the STN Application Center.
DC matches are identified using student enrollment information from the Real Time (RT) report for public schools or the Enrollment and Mobility (EM) report for nonpublic/parochial schools.
Make sure the school’s report is updated in the STN Application Center the day before running a DC match download.
If the DC download is missing students or shows students that have withdrawn or graduated, check the school's RT or EM reports in the STN Application Center to see if they have been updated.
- For those without the Effective Date Waiver, any new eligibility matches identified in the DC system can be applied beginning June 1.
- For those with the Effective Date Waiver, begin applying benefits beginning the date the DC download or DC Lookup says the student was first eligible.
- For more information about the Effective Date Waiver, click here.
Reminder! CEP data may include all DC free students eligible PY 2019-2020, including new students eligible for DC between April 1 and June 30. CEP cycles starting SY 2016-2017 will expire at the conclusion of SY 2019-2020 and schools will be required to reapply to remain on CEP.
For more information about CEP please visit the Community Eligibility Provision web page or contact your field specialist.
- Questions about DC? Contact DC specialists using the new DC Help Form.
May Claims
The May claim for reimbursement is now accessible in the CNPweb.
SSO claims are filed under the National School Lunch Program (purple puzzle piece), while the SFSP is claimed under the Summer Food Service Program (blue puzzle piece).
Do not forget that you will need to update your site sheets to accurately display what dates your sites were operating.
Indiana School Nutrition Association (ISNA) - Call for Speakers!
- Do you or someone you know want to share your experience and expertise on the challenges and changes that affect school nutrition communities and determine their success?
- ISNA is looking for dynamic speakers with tips, techniques, and knowledge to submit a proposal for presentation consideration at the Indiana School Nutrition Association’s 2020 Annual Conference, November 11-13, 2020 in Fort Wayne.
- ISNA is seeking proposals in the four key learning areas of USDA Professional Standards.
- Presentation options include:
- 60-minute education sessions
- 60-minute interactive round table sessions
- 60-minute panel discussions
- 30-minute Ideas at Work sessions
- ISNA is striving to develop an overall program that will result in a diverse array of presenters and perspectives including different professional levels and levels of experience.
- Click here to submit a proposal.
- You may need to select "create an account" (there is no charge) if you do not have one already.
- Questions? Contact Jan Frost at jan@indianasna.org.
How to Maximize the Exhibit A Grains Tool Webinar
- Team Nutrition will be holding a webinar on Thursday, June 11, 2:00 PM ET
- This webinar will highlight existing tools and new enhancements on both the Web-based Tool and Mobile App.
- A live demonstration of the Exhibit A Grains Tool on the mobile app will showcase the capabilities to use the tool to determine grains contribution, amount to serve, and amount to serve by age group/grade group for different Child Nutrition Programs.
- Click here to register.
Common Textbook Q&A
Does School Food Service need to have a disclosure agreement with those that process textbook benefits?
If the textbook processors are employed outside of school food service, then you will need to ensure that they know they can only use free and reduced information for textbook reimbursement purposes and cannot release that information for any other purposes. A disclosure agreement can be found here.
The person who processes textbook benefits logged into our student database and reviewed all free/reduced information. Is this allowable?
While the textbook processor is considered “need to know” in order to process textbook benefits, SFAs should only release free/reduced information from those households that signed the box stating they want textbook benefits. Any household that did not sign this box on the application or any direct certified household that opted out of textbook benefits cannot be disclosed to the textbook processor.
Our school is going to be using online textbooks this year but still will be charging students a fee for these. Does the textbook being online make the process different?
No, regardless of whether the textbooks for a student are actual physical books or accessed online/via a tablet, this does not change the process of how you use free and reduced data for textbook fees.
A household was pulled for verification and could not provide documentation to support their free status. They changed to paid. Does this mean they also are responsible for their textbook fees?
If a student no longer qualifies for assistance, the school would prorate the amount of textbook costs due. Under IC 20-33-5-6, after a determination of ineligibility, the school may bill the parent for the student’s fees.
A household declined Direct Certification benefits at the beginning of the year, now that they received their textbook bill they want to re-instate their free status. Can we do that?
It is up to the school as to whether or not free/reduced lunch status is reinstated. Schools should have a consistent policy to address this issue.
Questions about textbook benefits? Email DOETextBooks@doe.in.gov.
Indiana Department of Education - School and Community Nutrition
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this newsletter, please contact Allie Caito-Sipe at acaito@doe.in.gov, call (317) 232-0849, or toll-free at 1-800-537-1142 ext. 20849, or contact Ashley Heller at aheller@doe.in.gov, call (317) 232-0544, or toll-free at 1-800-537-1142 ext. 20544.
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Website: https://www.doe.in.gov/nutrition
Phone: (317) 232-0850
Twitter: @EducateIN