This report provides improper payments estimates for FY 2009 using a methodology for “aging” the 2005 bookend study. This updates previous reports providing estimates from 2005 to 2008.
About every 7 years, FNS performs a nationally representative study to examine the extent of error and abuse among food vendors authorized to accept WIC vouchers. The last bookend study was the 2005 WIC Vendor Management Study, which used fiscal year 2005 expenditure data to derive an estimate for 2004. Between bookend studies, there is a need to derive annual estimates of the level of improper payments for compliance with the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002. The purpose of the subsequent annual studies was to provide annual updates to the bookend studies using the developed aging methodology.
The Access, Participation, Eligibility, and Certification study found that one in five children certified for free or reduced- price meals in school year 2005-2006 was erroneously certified or incorrectly denied benefits. This study builds on APEC with three objectives: Develop an econometric model to identify indicators of local education authorities with high risk of certification error. Identify the key relationships between certification error and local characteristics. Provide a Web-based monitoring tool that will apply model parameters to annual Verification Summary Report data.
As the time for reauthorization of SNAP again approaches, it is useful to take stock of its accomplishments, identify those features that have contributed to its success, and look for new opportunities to strengthen operations to achieve program goals more fully. To that end, this is a summary of past research on program operations and outcomes.
This report, the first of three, addresses the first objective of the study, which is to explore the characteristics and experiences of WIC participants.
This report responds to a Congressional mandate for FNS to establish a long-range plan for the development and implementation of state agency Management Information Systems in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
This report responds to a requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to conduct direct certification of children for free school meals. Under direct certification, children are determined eligible for free meals without the need for household applications by using data from other means-tested programs.
This is the third in a series of annual reports assessing administrative error associated with the local educational agency’s approval of applications for free and reduced-price school meals.
The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 requires all federal agencies to calculate the amount of erroneous payments in federal programs and to periodically conduct detailed assessments of vulnerable program components. This is the second wave of a program assessment of the Family Day Care Home component of USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program.
School food service programs such as we have in 1971 did not just happen over-night nor even during the past decade. Preceding today's programs is a long history of more than a hundred years of development, of testing and evaluating, and of constant research to provide the best in nutrition, nutrition education, and food service for the nation's millions of children in school.