This memorandum provides clarification on nationwide waivers related available to all states, school food authorities and sponsoring organizations providing monitoring flexibilities in child nutrition programs during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency.
In light of the exceptional circumstances of this public health emergency, FNS is granting a nationwide waiver to help minimize potential exposure to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This waiver applies to the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
School food authorities participating in the School Breakfast Program may continue to credit any vegetable offered, including potatoes and other starchy vegetables, in place of fruit without including vegetables from other subgroups in the weekly menus, through June 30, 2021.
This Q&A memorandum is designed to provide an overview of the policies related to the Professional Standards regulations for state and local school nutrition program personnel.
This memo has been superseded by SP 06-2020: School Breakfast Program: Continuation of the Substitution of Vegetables for Fruit Flexibility.
School programs policy memo SP 14-2019 provides SY 2017-18 reporting guidance for the FNS-640 report. The FNS-640 form became available in FPRS on March 1, 2019. State agencies may use the attached instructions and business rules/edit check to begin and/or finalize implementation of processes for reporting and any system updates for School Year 2017-2018 reporting.
In school year 2013-14, FNS introduced the unified administrative review and a 3-year review cycle. Since then, FNS has received feedback about the difficulties of the shorter review cycle, both for the state agencies conducting the reviews, and for school food authorities preparing for and responding to reviews.
FNS issued memorandum SP 07-2019 on Nov. 30, 2018. This memorandum provided information regarding the delay of the fiscal action process due to state agency reported errors associated with the SY 2018-2019 Fiscal Action Workbook.
This memorandum provided information regarding the updated Administrative Review Manual, Forms and Tools for School Year 2018-19 to include the updated Fiscal Action Process and Workbook. Currently, regulations requires state agencies to take fiscal action for all Performance Standard 1 violations and Specific Performance Standard 2 violations identified during an administrative review.
FNS is pleased to announce the release of the fiscal year 2019 request for applications to invite state agencies that administer the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs to apply for FY 2019 Administrative Review and Training Grants.