Direct Certification Webinar Questions and Answers

Webinar Date: May 26, 2011

  1. Q: If the student lunch code is locked due to Direct Cert. How does one go about changing it to 5 there the parent rejects the classification if their rules are locked? Also, when Direct Cert is run monthly, will the 4 status overwrite the 5 status that the local system changed every month?

The lunch code for those children designated as DC will not be locked, but it will be restricted. Any student flagged as 4-Direct Cert can only be changed to 5-Parent Declined. The INOW system has built in functionality to keep DC children limited to a code of 4 or 5, anything else will not be permitted. If a parent rejects DC, that student’s code will have to be updated manually in both the POS and INOW systems and will not be overwritten by subsequent file updates.

  1. Q: Will STI provide the direct cert file on a monthly basis based on our current enrollment so that we keep the direct cert status updated regularly for students?

Yes, the file that will be produced from INOW will only contain information on children currently enrolled in your system.

  1. Q: Will this file be loaded at the local school level or loaded at the server level?

The file will be loaded at the central office and will update the student records for the district.

  1. Q: What about systems that have a standalone POS system that does not transfer data across the WAN….Will those systems be required to upgrade their POS systems?

For those who have a standalone POS system, the DC file will have to be loaded manually into the POS system and the extract to INOW will need to be completed manually also.If you do not have a POS system, you will still have access the direct cert file produced by INOW.

  1. Q: If we code a student as 5, then will the next month’s DC import overwrite that?

See Question 1

  1. Q: What do we do if we do not have a POS system?

See Question 4

  1. Q: Will the STI/POS systems do an automatic data transfer each day or will this have to be done manually?

The INOW system will provide the DC file to school districts on a monthly basis. The file transfer from the POS system to INOW will be daily.

  1. Q: When a child enrolls now from another system, they seem to have a default setting of free until we change them. Will STI address this issue?

Students transfer with the same eligibility code they had at the losing school. The gaining school will still need documentation for the eligibility determination unless approved by Direct Certification files received from AL Department of Human Resources.

  1. Q: If a child comes from another system in the State of Alabama, will their eligibility come in to our STI file already with the DCRT statuses?

If the child has been enrolled in your system by the time the DC file is produced, they will show up in your list with the correct DC status. However, if they were not enrolled in your system they will not show up until the next month.

  1. Q: Currently Homeless are coded DC in our software. Will this affect those students?
    Homeless should never be coded at DC. Homeless students are typically approved by the school district’s homeless coordinator or superintendent’s designee. The Homeless coordinator has the authority to approve homeless, migrant and runaway students to receive free meal benefits. The list of students is provided to child nutrition to enter eligibility and maintain the validated student list for audit purposes. Direct Certification is only provided by the AL Department of Human Resources from the SNAP, TANF, and foster children files.
  1. Q: Are you guys going to cover how private schools that do not have a POS system can do Direct Cert?

See Question 4

  1. Q: Will the local school district be responsible for changing siblings to extend eligibility if they are not all identified?

It is the local district’s responsibility to change siblings to extended eligibility. The district is to maintain a list of students who meet the extended eligibility criteria for audit purposes

  1. Q: Last year we had 222 students who came in the import as DC but upon investigation they were actually paid students – has this problem been corrected? I hand matched 1700 students and found the 222 who should not have been in the DC data.

This issue deals with SSN’s being entered incorrectly at the DHR level. There should be a decrease in these instances because of the additional filtering taking place in the INOW system. Please be aware, the best practice would be to match students on more than one data point. Use the SSN along with the Name or Date of Birth for more accurate matching.

  1. Q: In the past the eligibility stayed the same once they were DC … now if we bring in file monthly and a child’s status changes, then what is the rule?

That is still true. On page 40 of the Eligibility Manual, it states under Section A that direct certification takes precedence over an application submitted by the household and are eligible for the entire school year plus the first 30 days carryover of the next school year

  1. Q: In the past we had to break the file from PCS into two files because of the length of student id numbers. Will we still have to split this file?

No, the file should be small enough to be handled by the individual district’s POS system in one import.

  1. Q: Do we have to import the text file into Excel before importing into STI?

No, additional formatting will not be needed.

  1. Q: Is there any way the SSID can be populated before the first day of school for student registered?

SSID’s are populated as soon as a student is enrolled and state enrollment is on. Most students are mass enrolled before school starts.

  1. How are Pre-K children handled in STI with the direct cert file?

As long as the Pre-K students are entered into INOW and coded as E-98 or E99, they will be handled the same as any other student.

  1. Q: Could the Pre-K kids be deemed as extended eligibility?

If the Pre-K student is part of a family that has SNAP, you would be responsible for extending eligibility to those Pre-K students who qualify.

  1. Q: Will the info transfer be based on the SSID or State ID?
    The information transferred to the POS systems will be based on the SSN
  1. Q: Will the DC file that is sent from STI to the CNP program be imported through a special menu in our CNP program? Currently, when our CNP program imports students from STI all students are set inactive that are not in the import file from STI. If the DC file is brought in through this process it will inactivate all of the students in the CNP program that are not in the DC file.

Please contact your POS Company to work with STI to import the data to the POS software. A free patch should be available to allow data to transfer from STI directly to CNP POS with the DC students indicated. If the students are set as inactive, have your technology coordinator contact STI to determine if the district’s file has been set to import the file as inactive for all students. This may be a specific request from the district.

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