State |
Grant Type |
Award Date |
Amount |
| Kansas | ART II 2013 | December 2013 | $ 1,277,482.00 |
| Michigan | ART II 2013 | December 2013 | $ 966,618.00 |
| Pennsylvania | ART II 2013 | December 2013 | $ 1,499,977.00 |
| Rhode Island | ART II 2013 | December 2013 | $ 320,467.26 |
Kansas
Department of Education
The Kansas State Department of Education has applied for a grant to reduce the risk of administrative error and increase program integrity through a threefold approach that makes important updates to its existing online claiming and review management system. Proposed updates will implement comprehensive administrative review capabilities, and introduce new, multi-faceted training opportunities for school food service personnel. Kansas will replace its current claim system with a Microsoft-supported .NET system, and reduce administrative error among users by including functionality to eliminate redundant data collection, enhance reporting, improve workflow process, increase automation, and allow for more effective data integration between programs. Child Nutrition Consultants will be able to use mobile devices as part of the new system to integrate on-site review processes with backend program operations to enhance reporting and monitoring capabilities to identify errors in real-time. Kansas will also utilize its regionally-based training infrastructure to reduce administrative error through a comprehensive approach that addresses gaps in the foundation skills of school food service staff, utilize technology to offer technical assistance, and offer targeted training for counting and claiming accuracy. For more information, please contact Cheryl Johnson at csjohnson@ksde.org or (785) 296-2276.
Michigan
Department of Education
The Michigan Department of Education Office of School Support Services, School Nutrition Programs (SNP) has applied for an ART II grant to make improvements in their administrative training and oversight processes. The proposed technology improvements will allow for 1) improved ability to assist high-risk/error-prone LEAs by increasing tracking ability and training efforts via technology improvements, training opportunities and additional resources; 2) Improve its technologies to prevent internal errors, increase efficiency of data collection and reduce processing time and paper waste through error checks, use of formulas and cross-talk capabilities between data systems, monitoring and updated administrative review forms: and 3) increase its capacity to effectively evaluate its success in reducing errors and improving outcomes for high-risk/error-prone LEAs. For more information, please contact Howard Leikert at LeikertH@michigan.gov or (517) 373-2077.
Pennsylvania
Department of Education
The Pennsylvania Department of Education, Division of Food and Nutrition, has applied for an ART II grant to purchase an automated eligibility-processing system. Pennsylvania proposes to purchase an online, web based eligibility processing system that will: 1) reduce eligibility determination errors while creating efficiencies for the LEA and the state agency; 2) allow remote oversight of eligibility determination of all LEAs, and allow more frequent oversight, of eligibility processing, verification, and direct certification for error-prone LEAs. Pennsylvania has oversight for over 900 LEAs, and has selected this automated system to create efficiencies that will accommodate the 67% increase in the LEAs that need to be reviewed with converting from a five year to a three year administrative review cycle. The system should also increase the state agency’s direct certification match rate to help the state reach the direct certification thresholds established in the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. For more information, please contact Vonda Cooke at vcooke@pa.gov or (717) 783-6556.
Rhode Island
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Child Nutrition Program Office has applied for an ART II grant to make technology improvements to their current Child Nutrition Program Information Management System. Rhode Island has proposed to electronically re-engineer and integrate a solution that will enhance their system by incorporating new Administrative Review Guidelines, Toolkits, processes, updates and business rules to its framework. Rhode Island will also add an error prone indicator to their framework that will inform system reviewers of District/School “error prone” electronic meal benefit applications and the “error prone” data in the electronic Validation Web form completed and submitted by Districts completing eligibility determinations. For more information, please contact Becky Bessette at Becky.bessette@ride.ri.gov or (401) 222-4253.