FY 2010-12 Direct Certification Grant Summaries

Direct Certification Grant Awards by Date

Implementation Grant Summaries

Arkansas

Department of Education

The Arkansas Department of Education, Child Nutrition Unit has applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. The state proposes to perform a comprehensive redesign of Arkansas direct certification processes and implement a comprehensive end-to-end reporting methodology. The new system will match with a wider set of student attributes and use probabilistic matching. Arkansas will also establish a secure Department of Human Services (DHS) portal to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility data. The DHS portal will be accessible to authorized district personnel and will provide increased frequency of matching from annual to monthly matches. As a partner in this proposal, the DHS Special Nutrition Unit that administers the private schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, will work with both the SNAP Unit and a DHS Technology contractor to design a system to address the needs of private schools to reduce the time and effort to increase the matches of SNAP eligible students.

For more information, please contact Wanda Shockey at Wanda.Shockey@arkansas.gov or (501) 324-9502.

Connecticut

Department of Education

The Connecticut State Department of Education applied for an implementation grant to help them meet or exceed USDA benchmarks for direct certification rates through system enhancements to create and implement a fully automated, state-level direct certification and matching system that is highly responsive to state and local educational agency (LEA) needs. The intent is to optimize the quality of student data and accuracy of matching by: 1) creating a state-level online portal solution for non-public school student administration, public school case management matching reconciliation and the dissemination of direct certification information which provides LEAs with access to student data and direct certification matches; 2) incorporating unique identifiers for public and non-public school students to meet matching system data mapping; 3) standardizing and expanding system match capabilities between LEA's and multiple state agencies; 4) providing LEAs with monthly direct certification updates based on SNAP and Temporary Family Assistance (TFA) eligibility to permit sponsors to continually certify students directly; and 5) provide training and technical assistance to LEAs, with an emphasis on system integration and use by private schools.

For more information, please contact Cheryl Resha at Cheryl.Resha@ct.gov or 860-807-2050.

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 SA 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, please contact LaTisha Savoy at Latisha.Savoy@dc.gov or 202-727-2127.

Florida

State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

The State of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Child Nutrition Unit has applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. The state proposes to develop a statewide web-based system designed to maintain information regarding the children eligible for direct certification, based on TANF/SNAP participation. The new system will be designed to provide local educational agencies with a secure site to access student data for real-time verification of eligibility on a daily basis. Florida will offer training on the new system through hands-on system training, dedicated technical assistance, and documentation support for users to access onsite.

For more information, please contact Angela Voyles at Angela.Voyles@freshfromflorida.com or 850-617-7430.

Idaho

Department of Education

The Idaho State Department of Education applied for an implementation grant to improve its direct certification data matching capabilities. Idaho plans to improve the quality of student data received by developing unique student identifiers for all students, developing a more flexible probabilistic match that will increase the number of data fields used to identify matches, and develop a web based system for local educational agencies (LEAs) to retrieve direct certification match data and look up individual student information on matches. Currently the Idaho system updates information daily which will continue. The match process will be improved to update records daily for new benefit approvals and identify students sharing a residence with directly certified students so that eligibility can be extended as appropriate to include foster children and FDIPR. Idaho also plans to use grant funds to provide appropriate training to all stakeholders including state agency, LEA personnel and SNAP personnel.

For more information, please contact Colleen Fillmore at crfillmore@sde.idaho.gov or 208-332-6820.

Massachusetts

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

The State of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has applied for an implementation grant which proposes improvements intended to: 1) significantly increase participation in the School Nutrition Program by providing an on-line real time capability for local educational agencies (LEA) to identify eligibility of school aged children for direct certification based on existing SNAP and/or Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) eligibility; 2) improve efficiency and reduce reliance on free and reduced price eligibility paper applications for LEAs; 3) improve participation and accuracy of direct certification match percentages.

For more information, please contact Kevin Dawson at kdawson@doe.mass.edu or 781-338-6475.

Missouri

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Missouri applied for an Implementation grant to improve direct certification by revising their matching and certification process. Missouri proposes a central matching system that will incorporate their Missouri Student Information System (MOSIS) data, an identifying number from the Missouri Department of Education (DESE) with a departmental client number (DCN) from the Department of Social Services (DSS). A DCN number is assigned to all children born in Missouri and to any person receiving selected services, such as SNAP, TANF, and foster child benefits. The central matching system will electronically match master listings of children eligible for SNAP, TANF and FACES (foster child benefits – Family and Children Electronic System) from DSS to DESE's MOSIS records. Missouri LEAs participating in the National School Lunch Program will be provided electronically matched records on a monthly basis.

For more information, please contact Karen Wooton at Karen.Wooton@dese.mo.gov or 573-751-3526.

Montana

Office of Public Instruction

The Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) applied for an implementation grant to address their future interagency data communication needs and create a system that will store and leverage any knowledge gained through their direct certification process. Their proposed project will be separated into three components: the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), a Master Data Repository with a matching engine, and a Direct Certification Web Application. The ESB will provide a standard way for the internal and external applications to send and receive data. The increased flexibility, scalability, message routing, and security at the ESB level is intended to set the foundation of the OPI's Service-Oriented-Architecture.

For more information, please contact Christine Emerson at cemerson@mt.gov or 406-444-2502.

New Hampshire

Department of Education

The New Hampshire Department of Education applied for an implementation grant to improve their current software system to: improve auditing requirements by adding dates to the students' roster list; improve matching capabilities by adding a feature to sort by school district and print roster for individual schools; improve training and technical assistance by offering training to all end users providing more understanding and encouraged use of system features; and train SNAP officers to understand the importance of what happens when the “opt-out” feature is selected by clients.

For more information, please contact Kathryn Hodges at Kathryn.Hodges@doe.nh.gov or 603-271-3861.

New Jersey

State Department of Agriculture

New Jersey applied for an implementation grant to improve performance and level of accuracy of their existing web-based direct certification system. The state will hire IT personnel to address issues with uploading matched data for LEAs to access, develop enhancements to improve match performance, develop a model for sibling matches and incorporate phonetic algorithms.

For more information, please contact Emma Davis-Kovacs at emma.davis-kovacs@ag.state.nj.us or 609-984-0692.

New Mexico

State Public Education Department

The State of New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) has applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. NMPED plans to build a state level matching system to increase the capacity for providing access and support to their local educational agencies (LEAs), private, and Bureau of Indian Education schools. NMPED's web portal will provide LEAs with automatic access to their direct certification data. NMPED will also provide training and support for the new direct certification matching system.

For more information, please contact Kevin Adkins at kevin.adkins@state.nm.us or 505-827-1822.

North Carolina

State Department of Public Instruction

The State of North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. North Carolina plans to purchase a Direct Certification application to automate their direct certification process. The proposed new system will allow North Carolina to add matching criteria and include tools for improving the capacity for providing access and support to their local educational agencies.

For more information, please contact Jeffrey Merritt at jeffrey.merritt@dpi.nc.gov or 919-807-3515.

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, please contact Linda Kay Schloer at lkschloer@nd.govor 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, please contact Heidi Dupuis at Heidi.Dupuis@state.or.us or 503-947-5893.

Pennsylvania

Department of Education

Pennsylvania applied for an implementation grant to focus on three key goals: 1) improve direct certification processes at the LEA level; 2) evaluate new direct certification related functions in COMPASS (the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services System, an integrated, web-based system that provides customer access to social service benefits) and develop future COMPASS recommendations to address barriers in the direct certification process, as identified by LEAs; and 3) improve direct certification monitoring and communications with stakeholders.

For more information, please contact Vonda Cooke at vcooke@pa.gov or 717-783-6556.

Rhode Island

Department of Education

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) increasing the frequency of matching to quickly and efficiently identify children added to the SNAP and TANF programs.

For more information, please contact Becky Bessette at Becky.Bessette@ride.ride.gov or 401-222-4253.

South Dakota

Department of Education

The State of South Dakota Department of Education applied for an implementation grant to establish a statewide computerized software solution that will assist them in improving their direct certification process. The proposed technology solution will include sound-alike matching, capability to import data from multiple state and LEA sources, and generate reports and queries based on local and state needs. South Dakota also will implement an LEA-based software and hardware solution to provide LEAs the capability to access data information within the statewide system for completing the direct certification process. State and LEA personnel will be offered training and support for accessing data information and understanding system features to perform successful operation of computerized solutions.

For more information, please contact Sandra Kangas at Sandra.Kangas@state.sd.us or 605-773-4746.

Utah

State Office of Education

The Utah State Office of Education applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. Utah will make enhancements to their current process to simplify match processing at the LEA level and allow for online look-up for a single student. They also will explore the use of Soundex to improve matching and will provide training and technical assistance to ensure LEAs understand and use the system to perform required direct certification activities.

For more information, please contact Charlene Allert at Charlene.Allert@schools.utah.gov or 801-538-7563.

Washington

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

The Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification rate and help them achieve the 95% goal benchmark established for the 2013-2014 school year. Washington proposes improvements to their current technical and business processes. They will complete the following two goals: 1) redevelop their current matching application by acquiring and integrating new software, and 2) make improvements to their local educational agencies' direct certification communication and collaboration process through training, streamlining the process for direct certification counts, and improving the flow of information.

For more information, please contact Donna Parsons at Donna.Parsons@k12.wa.us or 360-725-6210.

Wisconsin

Department of Public Instruction

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. They will implement changes to provide SFAs with the capacity to consistently run the direct certification process efficiently at least every three months, increase the ability of SFAs to successfully match students; and increase statewide direct certification rates for participating public and private schools within their state. The project includes outreach, training and technical assistance to SFAs, including enhanced materials/documents for SFAs regarding extending eligibility to all children in a household and guidance for SFAs regarding resolving near-matches. Wisconsin also plans to integrate student placement data from the state foster care system into existing state direct certification SNAP and TANF participant database to assist with extending categorical eligibility to foster children; expand the list of fields that SFAs can submit for direct certification match (e.g., county, city, address, parent name, sibling name); and apply Soundex to reduce overall number of near-matches.

For more information, please contact June Paul at June.Paul@dpi.wi.gov or 608-267-9121.

West Virginia

Department of Education

The West Virginia Department of Education has applied for an implementation grant to improve their direct certification process. West Virginia has proposed to purchase and install additional servers and network attach storage for their web-based direct certification software. The proposed system architecture will allow for faster data input and output while reducing potential system failure by adding failsafe redundancy. This solution will increase the speed that the web-based direct certification software operates so their match is performed more efficiently and at a greater frequency. West Virginia also proposes to work with the SNAP agency to offer training on reprogramming their match file to automatically process when imported into West Virginia's direct certification matching software. Training on using electronic methods to provide quality and accurate data for the matching software will be offered to SNAP agency personnel and local educational agency staff.

For more information, please contact Richard J. Goff at rjgoff@access.k12.wv.us or 304-558-2709.