Policy Memo (147.02 KB)
On Sept. 1, 2004, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) published an interim rule entitled, “Child and Adult Care Food Program: Improving Management and Program Integrity” (69 FR 53501). This rule puts into effect regulatory provisions that FNS had proposed on Sept. 12, 2000 (65 FR 55101), as modified in response to 548 public comments received on that proposal.
Although FNS is soliciting public comment on this interim rule, its provisions will be codified in the Code of Federal Regulations and will have the force of law, effective Oct. 1, 2004. FNS issued this as an interim rule, and allowed a lengthy period for public comments, to permit state agencies and institutions to comment on the rule after they have actually implemented all of its provisions.
This memorandum and the attached guidance is intended to provide Regional offices and state agencies (SAs) with information for their use in implementing the provisions of this interim rule. In addition to discussing each regulatory change in the rule, this guidance will also:
- Provide an “index” of the rule (the Federal Register page numbers of the preamble discussion relating to each provision, as well as the specific regulatory citation(s) for each provision) to help regional and state Program administrators quickly locate discussions of a specific regulatory change;
- Address implementation timeframes; and
- Discuss the areas where this second interim rule interacts with the provisions of the first interim rule published on June 27, 2002 (67 FR 43447), which implemented statutory provisions mandated by the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 and the Grain Standards and Warehouse Improvement Act of 2000 (PL 106-224 and 106- 472, respectively).
In order to assist SAs in ensuring that their participating institutions properly implement these regulatory changes, we have also included guidance materials designed for SA distribution to participating sponsoring organizations and independent centers (Attachments 3 and 4, respectively). We encourage SAs to distribute these materials to institutions as quickly as possible. Although we will provide a more in-depth discussion of most of these regulatory changes in National training to be provided to SAs in the spring of 2005, SAs and institutions should be able to implement most of these provisions (the exceptions are clearly noted in the attached guidance) by Oct. 1, 2004.
State agencies should contact their regional office staff if there are any questions concerning this guidance.
STANLEY C. GARNETT
Director
Child Nutrition Division