Finding Text
1. FINDING NUMBER: 2024 - 001
2. THIS FINDING IS: New
3. Federal Program Name and Year: Child Nutrition Cluster
4. Project No.: 4299-00, 4210-00, 4210-BT, 4210-LF, 4210-SC, 4220-00
5. CFDA No.: 10.555, 10.553
6. Passed Through: Illinois State Board of Education
7. Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture
8. Criteria or specific requirement (including statutory, regulatory, or other citation): The District is required to ensure National School Lunch Program applications are appropriately completed before approving the application for free or reduced status. If the application is incorrectly filled out, they are to deny the application.
9. Condition: In the population of 40 applications selected for testing, an exception was noted on 1 of the applications. This exception stemmed from the "pay frequency" section of the application, where the person filling out the application left this section blank, thereby creating an issue where it was not possible to calculate the household's annual income. However, the District still approved the application for free status. The District noted that the frequency was confirmed verbally, however failed to obtain physical documentation. It does appear, however, that the student was appropriately classified as free status.
10. Questioned Costs: N/A
11. Context: 1 exception was noted out of the 40 applications selected for testing, which were selected from a population of several hundred.
12. Effect: Students could receive free lunch for the year when they might have not qualified for it.
13. Cause: The District did not correctly obtain physical documentation of the annual household income on the application, nor properly review the application to ensure completeness.
14. Recommendation: The District should implement/follow procedures to ensure a student's National School Lunch applications are appropriately filled out before approving the application.
15. Management will implement procedures to ensure applications are appropriately reviewed for completeness before approving.