Protecting the confidentiality of food stamp applicants and participants has been an important component of the Food Stamp Program since its inception. While FNS has been aware for some time that a number of state agencies have been making use of group interviews in order to simplify office operations, recently regional pffices also have asked for guidance on various ways that group interviews might be conducted in their states.
The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify state agency procedures for direct verification, especially concerning the use of Medicaid data.
Attached is the fifth set of questions and answers in response to issues raised by states since the issuance of our four earlier sets of questions and answers, clarifying the certification provisions of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.
PL 109-163 made the Department of Defense’s Family Subsistence Supplemental Allowance permanently available.
This guidance serves as a general reminder to state agencies about the importance of complying with the Buy American provisions that are found in the regulations of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
The final regulation establishing Food Stamp High Performance Bonuses was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 7, 2005. The regulation established the Program Access Index as one of the criteria – among others – on which states could qualify for a share of the funds made available for bonus awards.
On May 18, 2006, FNS published the attached final rule entitled, "Civil Rights Data Collection" in the Federal Register. The final rule implements the new racial and ethnic data collection and reporting for the Food Stamp Program to comply with the l 997 data collection standards issued by the Office of Management and Budget.
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act was amended by the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 to specify verification sample sizes for local educational agencies .
We have obtained the latest school enrollment and attendance figures from the Department of Education. For your information, the updated national average daily attendance factor for use during Coordinated Review for School Year 2006-2007 is 93.4 percent.
The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify that sponsors of day care homes may not include non-claiming homes in the total number of homes reported for determining administrative reimbursements.