Audit 381895

Reporting: Accurate meal counts by category must be used on the claims for reimbursement each month. The ISBE exam found that meal counts by category for lunch were not correctly used in the December 2024 Claim for Reimbursement. Questioned costs: Undetermined but under $25,000. This was a finding in the ISBE exam. The District might receive an incorrect amount in federal reimbursement. This occurred because figures were copied incorrectly. Meal counts by category must be accurately reported each month. The monthly meal counts will be viewed and placed into WINS by one employee and then will be verified by a second employee before final submission.

Eligibility: Per the USDA Free and Reduced Price School Meals instructions, the free and reduced status must be determined using the Federal Registry income eligibility guidelines or a valid SNAP case number. Based upon single audit testing noted 4 applications approved in the wrong category: two applications that were approved as free but should have been reduced, one application that was approved reduced but should have been free, and one application that was approved reduced but should have been paid. Also noted that per ISBE exam, ISBE noted eight applications that were approved in the wrong category: 7 applications that were approved free but should have been reduced and one application that was approved free but should have been paid. Also, the ISBE exam noted two applications that were missing a valid SNAP case number. Questioned Costs: Undetermined but under $25,000. Per the single audit testing, 40 applications were selected for testing and 4 were approved in the wrong category. This resulted in students receiving the wrong benefits and the school receiving the wrong federal grant reimbursements. This occurred due to human error. We recommend establishing a procedure to ensure household eligibility applications are approved in the appropriate category according the current income guidelines. All household eligibility applications will be first taken be one employee, checked over by a second employee and then confirmed by a third employee.

Eligibility: Either an application must be filled out correctly or Direct Certification completed to determine the eligibility of students for free or reduced price meals. The District could not find 1 free/reduced application selected. No questioned costs. 40 students were tested for eligibility for free/reduced meals. Out of the 40 selected noted 1 application that could not be found for testing. Could not complete the testing for the application that could not be found. This occurred due to human error. We recommend establishing a procedure to ensure that all applications are kept in a manner where they can be found in the future. The district has employed a new Food Service Director. The new Director has been made aware of the previous errors and is following the procedures to double check applications and organize and store documents in a manner in which they can be retrieved with the appropriate back up for food claims.