Poverty ValidationInformation Document

The 0198 code is the poverty code used by SED to determine the SES subgroup for accountability. A poverty state code of 0198 is required for students who fit the criteria as described in the SIRS policy manual as:

• Eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch (Food Service Package);

• Social Security Insurance (SSI);

• Food Stamps;

• Foster Care;

• Refugee Assistance (cash or medical assistance);

• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC);

• Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP);

• Safety Net Assistance (SNA);

• Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); or

• Family Assistance: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

If one student in a family is identified as low income, all students from that household(economic unit) may be identified as low income.

How the poverty code gets into Level 1

  • Free and Reduced sent from Food Service package

Once the district lets the Warehouse know that they want their poverty code to come from the food package software they have the file sent for all free and reduced students (Peggy Carroll does this for many districts with NutriKids). It is sent generally before the regularly scheduled Refresh once per month. The programmer (currently Mike) loads this data into the Warehouse. If a student has a record in the Warehouse, a poverty code (0198) for that student will be added to their record.

The process for students entering the food package software may vary. Generally, when students register they are given a free and reduced lunch form to fill out. If they are eligible and willing to participate they bring this to the food service office in the building and they enter them in the food service software package (i.e., NutriKids, WinSnap). With NutriKids there is a nightly sync with SIS so that student demographic data is already in the system.

If a student is a SSC of 17 (eating lunch in the district but from another district- BOCES operated in a building in your district) these students’ demographic information is entered by hand. Districts call the sending district so they can get the correct local ID in the system. The RIC works to identify these students and get their Poverty information into the Warehouse for the district that has accountability responsibility.

Enter the poverty code into SIS by using SISWeb/Program Service/Economic Status.

Some districts do this for all of their students for Free and Reduced codes and for poverty codes (not as easy as having it come straight form the Food Package extract).

This would also bethe method for any student that is not being reported by the Food Service package (Foster Care, Bureau of Indian Affairs …). If the poverty code is coming from both places this causes duplicates in the warehouse which would not cause a problem but it does not make the programmers very happy.

Odds and Ends

  • Poverty codes do not backload into SIS.
  • Students fill out their applications for Free and Reduced at the building /district where they are actually eating lunch. This means that they go into that districts Food Service package and not the district that is responsible for accountability. This can be a concern for you SSC18 students. Currently the only way to get these students the poverty code is if they have siblings in the district that are free or reduced lunch (need to check on how this works).
  • Free and Reduced codes are included in the Warehouse and reported to SED. (Free-5817, Reduced-5806). They can be checked in the Warehouse.
  • Districts report to the state and feds each month the number of free and reduced lunches that they served so they can receive funds. This would include any student regardless of where they are enrolled. It is not sent through SIRS.
  • Districts receive approximately $3.50 per free and reduced lunch they serve.
  • October 1st is the date that Students need to reapply by each year to get free and reduce lunches.
  • If a student is Poverty anytime during the school year they are considered Poverty for the whole year. In other words, if they don’t reapply before October they will have a program end date in the fall but they will still have the 0198 code sent to the warehouse from 7/1 though 10/1 so they are considered part of the Poverty Subgroup still. Same thing if you win the Lottery in December!

Process for Verifying

  • Check the Level 2 reasonableness report and/or program service poverty and Free and Reduced reports to make sure that there are numbers here (totals may vary for a variety of reasons that I am still investigating)
  • Acquire the following files:

Free and Reduced listing from Food Service Package

Program Service (Poverty) district drill through from COGNOS (Choose Current School Year).

SISWeb- All Students Download (Active Students and Inactive for current school year)

  • Import into ACCESS
  • Do an Unmatched Query for Free and Reduced with unmatched SISWeb to find any students to make sure all students being sent by the food service package have a 2010 student record in the Warehouse
  • Do an Unmatched Query for Free and Reduced with unmatched Program Service from COGNOS to make sure all students are in the Warehouse.’
  • Check all of your SSC 25 from the SISWeb Download and make sure they have the POV code in SIS (SISWeb/Program Service/Economic Status) and a Program Service in the Warehouse.
  • Verify with DataWarehouse that your SSC 18 students that are also free and reduced are being included (still a work in progress).

Updated: 10/7/2018