Finding 1176195 (2025-001)

7 CFR § 210.8(a) states in part, "The school food authority shall establish internal controls which ensure the accuracy of meal counts prior to the submission of the monthly Claim for Reimbursement. At a minimum, these internal controls shall include: an on-site review of the meal counting and claiming system employed by each school within the jurisdiction of the school food authority; comparisons of daily free, reduced price and paid meal counts against data which will assist in the identification of meal counts in excess of the number of free, reduced price and paid meals served each day to children eligible for such meals; and a system for following up on those meal counts which suggest the likelihood of meal counting problems." 7 CFR § 220.11(b) states in part, Claims for Reimbursement shall include data in sufficient detail to justify the reimbursement claimed and to enable the State Agency to provide the Reports of School Program Operations required under § 220.13(b)(2). In Ohio, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) requires school districts to use the Claims Reporting and Reimbursement System (CRRS) to report meal data for reimbursement. Due to insufficient controls over reporting, related to breakfast and lunch meal counts, one of the three (33%) months tested was inaccurate. This led to inaccuracies in meal counts reported in the CRRS system, as shown below: This weakness resulted in a loss of accountability over meal count reporting and could lead to a reduction or forfeiture of future funding for this program. The District should develop control policies and procedures to ensure the number of meals served and reported to DEW agree to the respective daily meal count forms and the meals served / tabulated. The procedures should include an independent review of the meal counts manually entered into the point-of-sale system, based upon the daily meal count forms, and the meal counts manually entered into CRRS by an employee not associated with the computer entry. These review procedures should be acknowledged by initials / signatures. If there are errors or discrepancies between meals served / tabulated and the amounts reported to DEW, the District should maintain supporting documentation to demonstrate the meals reported to DEW were accurate and complete.