CNS Update: Important Information About the Direct Certification System

Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction sent this bulletin at 01/15/2020 03:22 PM PST

Update: Important Information About the Direct Certification System

On Monday, January 13, 2020, Child Nutrition Services shared information regarding incorrect eligibility determinations made in the Direct Certification system. We have additional information to share with you.

Incorrect information was in the Direct Certification system between December 4, 2019, and January 13, 2020. This information incorrectly displayed students as “Migrant”, with the date eligible column blank. Other students may have been displayed with a reason eligible code 99. If you conducted downloads via date parameters, daily downloads or a full download anytime during this timeframe, these students were directly certified in error.

Your district must take necessary steps to ensure that direct certification for free or reduced-price meals has been accurately determined by following these steps:

Conduct direct certification now if the most recent download was between December 4th and January 13th.
Compare January 14th and later direct certification lists to those run between December 4th and January 13th. Identify students with reason qualified “Migrant” (3) and blank date eligible column or, reason qualified 99.
For these students, identify meal benefit status to status prior to December 4th. For example, a student was incorrectly directly certified as "Migrant" on January 7th. Prior to December 4th, the student was eligible for reduced-price meals with an application.
Determine students that will need meal benefit status changes.
For these students, notify households by letter that benefits will be reduced in ten days.
After ten days, correct meal benefit status in the point-of-service meal counting system.

A letter from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction informing households of this error is available to you. If you would like to send affected households this letter, please email laura.neal@k12.wa.us for a copy.

If you have any questions about this error or how to correct the error, please contact Wendy Barkley at wendy.barkley@k12.wa.us or by phone at 360-725-0433.

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