The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) conducted the Study of Nonresponse to the School Meals Application Verification Process to examine (1) the accuracy of the current verification process, (2) district practices when verifying applications for cause, and (3) the ultimate results of the verification process, including the reasons why households do not respond to verification requests and how many households reapply.
This in-depth case study used data from a non-random sample of 20 large school districts in 8 metropolitan areas to examine (1) the accuracy of the current verification process, (2) district practices when verifying applications for cause, and (3) the ultimate results of the verification process, including the reasons why households do not respond to verification requests and how many households reapply. Data were collected from November 2018–May 2019.