The New Look of Direct Certification

1
The New Look of Direct Certification

• Melanie Brummeler, MA, RD
• June 2007

2
Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of
2004

• Amended the Richard B. Russell National School
  Lunch Act to require Direct Certification
• Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) must directly
  certify children who are members of the
  households receiving assistance under the Food
  Stamp Program as eligible for free school meals,
  without further application

3
Old Process

• The Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS)
  provided the Michigan Department of Education
  (MDE) with data files of children from food stamp
  households
• MDE mailed the data files out to participating
  schools

4
New Direct Certification

• MDE was awarded grant funds from the United
  States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help
  develop a new process for direct certification

5
New Direct Certification

• DHS will provide the Center for Educational
  Performance and Information (CEPI) with an
  electronic data file
• CEPI will match data from DHS with student
  enrollment data reported by school districts in
  the Single Record Student Database (SRSD)

6
New Direct Certification

• Beginning August 2007, a Direct Certification
  report through the Single Record Student
  Database/Unique Identification Code Application
  (SRSD/UIC Application) will be available for all
  public school districts
• Nonpublic schools will be provided access to the
  report in the 2008-2009 school year

7
Benefits to New Direct Certification

• Increased security
• No more social security numbers
• Districts will only view their enrolled students
• Increased access
• Matching is completed via the SRSD/UIC
  Application
• Web-based application available to all LEAs
• Decreased verification efforts
• Students directly certified do not get verified

8
File Format

• The direct certification report will be available
  in four different formats
• PDF
• Excel
• CSV
• HTML

9
Excel Format
10
CSV Format
11
LEA Responsibilities

• LEAs must notify directly certified households
• Household responsibility to notify the school if
  it does not want free school meal benefits

12
Accessing Direct Certification

• The district/school UIC Resolvers will have
  access to the report in SRSD
• How do I find out who my UIC resolver is?
• https//cepi.state.mi.us/SRSD/CEPI_Reports/SRSDRes
  olver.asp

13
Direct Certification Availability

• Initial report August 8
• Version 2 August 15
• Version 3 September 12 (Tentative)
• Version 4 October 1 (Tentative)
• Version 5 December 3

14
Questions

• CEPI Customer Support
• cepi_at_michigan.gov
• 517-335-0505 select option 3
• Melanie Brummeler
• brummelerm_at_michigan.gov
• 517-373-4020