Finding Text
2024-002. Eligibility
United States Department of Agriculture, Passed Through New York State, Department of Education: Child Nutrition Cluster
School Breakfast Program ALN: 10.553
National School Lunch Program ALN: 10.555
Criteria: Under the Child Nutrition Program, certain children enrolled through the District may be eligible to receive free and reduced price meals once a household application for free and reduced-price school meals is submitted and they meet certain criteria. Each application prepared by the household contains the household income and the number of household members. Once the information is entered into the District’s point of sale software it is compared to the published income eligibility guidelines to determine if the child is eligible for a free or reduced price meal, or if the child is required to pay full price for meals.
Condition: The District has designated one employee to receive and enter the annual household applications into the District’s point of sale software. Based on our inquiries and review of thirty nine applications tested for student eligibility (free or reduced), we noted two instances where students were improperly classified to receive free or reduced meals based on the household income reported on the application.
Cause: The District did not have a process to perform a secondary review of the information on the applications to that entered by the designated employee into the point of sale software to determine if this information is properly entered.
Effect: With no secondary review process in place, there is a chance that the information on the application can be entered incorrectly into the point of sale software and may cause the eligibility status to be incorrectly determined.
Questioned Costs: None reported.
Context: The District reviewed and processed in excess of 380 household applications for free and reduced-price school meals. The District was approved to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision effective December 1, 2023 through June 30, 2027, for all buildings serving meals.
Identification of a Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: The District should determine if a second employee should be involved to review the information input into the software system to the completed household application.
Views of Responsible Officials of Auditee: The District will adopt procedures that ensure there will be a secondary review of household applications to ensure they are processed properly.