District of Columbia
Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Wellness and Nutrition Services Division
The District of Columbia, Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), Wellness and Nutrition Services Division (WNS) applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. OSSE-WNS plans to improve the quality of student data received by developing unique student identifiers for all students enrolled in the District of Columbia Public Schools and Public Charter Schools. The state agency also proposes to create an online portal solution for the disbursement of direct certification information. This online portal will provide local education agencies (LEAs) direct access to student data and direct certification matches. LEAs will be provided real time data elements being captured under SNAP and TANF eligibility throughout the school year and be able to continually certify students directly, reducing the need for paper applications and undue administrative burden on families and school food authority (SFA) personnel.
For more information, contact LaTisha Savoy at Latisha.Savoy@dc.gov or 202-727-2127.
North Dakota
Department of Public Instruction
The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (DPI) applied for a direct certification implementation grant to enhance the state's current direct certification system to provide internal and external users more system tools to assist in identifying eligible students. The project includes outreach, training and technical assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs), with special emphasis on private schools. The project also includes providing training to DPI School Nutrition Program staff members and DPI Management Information System programmer/analysts.
For more information, contact Linda Kay Schloer at lkschloer@nd.gov or 701-328-4565.
Oregon
Department of Education
The Oregon Department of Education applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. Oregon plans to improve their current system to: simplify the report to SFA's of the weekly matches of students against data of SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants; match student data back to matched direct certification students to pick up any students who are not receiving SNAP or TANF benefits but live in a household that does; and apply Soundex software to the match routine that will include sound-alike matches and compensate for misspelled input. Oregon's enhancements also will include an automated e-mail messaging system to identify new students that have been added to the list as directly certified and a database that will provide SFAs access and search capabilities to obtain data matched to other SFAs.
For more information, contact Heidi Dupuis at Heidi.Dupuis@state.or.us or 503-947-5893.
Rhode Island
Department of Public Instruction
The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) applied for an implementation grant to work with the Rhode Island Department of Human Services (RIDHS) to support an enhanced e-Direct Certification process. RIDE is seeking to improve the accuracy of the data match between the RIDE enrollment and the RIDHS SNAP and TANF program eligibility data through two strategies: 1) developing an enhanced matching algorithm, including a Soundex component; and 2) incredible easing the frequency of matching to quickly and efficiently identify children added to the SNAP and TANF programs.
For more information, contact Becky Bessette at Becky.Bessette@ride.ride.gov or 401-222-4253.