Finding 1091035 (2024-001)

2024-001 – Nonmaterial Noncompliance – Eligibility Program: Child Nutrition Cluster (ALN 10.553 and 10.555) – United States Department of Agriculture; Federal Award Year: 2024 Criteria: Title 42, U.S. Code 1758 states a child’s eligibility for free or reduced-price meals under a Child Nutrition Cluster program may be established by the submission of an annual application or statement which furnishes such information as family income and family size. Local Educational Agencies (“LEA”) determine eligibility by comparing the data reported by the child’s household to published income eligibility guidelines. Condition: Of the forty (40) applicants selected for testing of eligibility; one (1) instance was identified where an applicant was improperly provided benefits without a current annual application on file. Cause: Manual adjustment to student’s application within the system by program administrators when the student transferred schools resulted in an incorrect annual renewal date and thus a current annual application was not obtained for the 2023-2024 school year. Effect: Noncompliance may result in action by the grantor. Questioned Costs: $468 known questioned costs. Recommendation: All manual adjustments made by program administrators should be reviewed by someone other than the preparer. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action: School Nutrition Services concurs with this recommendation. Leadership has put a new process in place, to run a report from the point-of-sale system weekly, that will catch any “Manual” updates to lunch statuses. This report will be run weekly and verified by either the Dietitian or Controller. The report will be initialed and kept on file.