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Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Administrative Review
Training General Program Requirements and Special Milk Program conference call. At this
time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and
answer period. Instructions will be given at that time. If you should require assistance
during today's conference call, please press * followed by zero. And as a reminder, today's
conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your
host, Mr. Eric Lai. Please go ahead. Thank you, and hi, everyone and welcome to today's
Administrative Review Training Webinar. My name is Eric Lai and I'm with the Child Nutrition
Division at USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, and also the School Meals Administrative Review
Reinvention Team, or SMARRT. I'm joined here today by Heather Hopwood, who also is on the
SMARRT team. Today's Webinar will focus on the monitoring areas we didn't have time to
cover during our in-person training sessions. The topics we'll be covering today are listed
on the screen. They are: SFA on-site monitoring, water, outreach for the School Breakfast Program
and the Summer Food Service Program, the Special Milk Program, and competitive food services.
These areas fall under the General Program Compliance section of the guidance, with the
exception of Special Milk, which falls under Other Federal Program Reviews. This Webinar
is a supplemental resource to the Administrative Review Guidance Manual, which we will assume
that today's audience has already reviewed. For each of these areas that we address today
we will cover the goals of monitoring that area during the administrative review, the
review procedures, technical assistance, and corrective action requirements and whether
any fiscal action is required for non-compliance. Just as a note, you can access the slides
for this presentation in the upper right hand corner of your screen, there's a little hand
out icon that you can click, and from there you can download the slides for this presentation.
Now, before we get started we want to take a quick poll of the audience. We know that
this Webinar, as I mentioned, is a supplemental resource for the guidance manual and we're
expecting that all of you will have some understanding of the material in that guidance and also
an understanding of the School Meals Program requirements as a whole. This past spring
the Food and Nutrition Service Agency hosted five national trainings on the new administrative
review process, and we thought it would be helpful and interesting to see how many of
you had the opportunity to participate in one of these national trainings. So we'll
switch the screen over really quick to the poll and let you share your responses. So
go ahead and click "Yes," or, "No, but you've reviewed the guidance manual."
All right, so it looks like most folks on the call did get a chance to attend our in-person
training, which is fantastic. And for those of you who haven't had that opportunity, we
hope that you've at least had a chance to either read the guidance or you're planning
on reading the guidance soon, as that's really your go-to resource for learning more about
the administrative review process. All right, so with that done let's move on with our slides,
and I'm going to turn this over now to Heather to take us into our next section. Heather?
Thanks, Eric. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks, again, for joining us for the first
of a series of Webinars that we're offering to complement the in-person trainings. Let's
begin with today's first topic, the SFA on-site monitoring. Within the Administrative Review
Process the SFA's on-site monitoring is reviewed under the general program compliance section,
and this is Section V of the Administrative Review Guidance Manual. The regulations require
SFAs to establish internal controls that ensure the accuracy of lunch counts before submitting
monthly claims for reimbursement. The internal controls must include an on-site review of
the lunch counting and claiming system used by each SFA school that's approved to participate
in the National School Lunch Program. SFAs with only one school are not required to conduct
on-site reviews. However, FNS highly encourages those SFAs to conduct a self-assessment in
the form of an on-site review to ensure integrity and accountability of the program. Each SFA
with more than one school has to perform at least on-site review by February 1st of each
year. The goal or purpose of monitoring the SFAs on-site monitoring requirements is to
ensure that the SFA is conducting their self-assessment of their own counting and claiming practices
and to make sure that the self-assessment is completed and documented by February 1st
each year. The Administrative Review form questions that are related to this SFA on-site
monitoring requirement are questions 900 to 902 on the Off-site Assessment Tool, and question
903 on the On-site Assessment Tool. So we'll just take a minute and look at these questions
now. As you can see on the slide, the off-site assessment tool questions assess whether the
SFA monitors the lunch counting and claiming system in each site by February 1st, and if
the SFA did not meet the February 1st deadline was an extension requested, approved, and
then the activities completed by the extended deadline. The questions also identify if findings
have corrective actions and if corrective actions sufficiently addresses the problems,
and if a follow-up is conducted within 45 days to validate that corrective action was
implemented. If an administrative review of the SFA is conducted before February 1st the
SFA may not have completed their on-site monitoring reviews, and in this case the reviewer should
determine whether the SFA is on track to meeting the February 1st deadline. If not, then the
reviewer should review the SFA's on-site monitoring activity from the prior school year to determine
whether the SFA effectively schedules their on-site monitoring to meet the February 1st
deadline, or if the problem is more of a trend. If the administrative review of the SFA is
conducted after February 1st, the reviewer should examine only the documentation for
the current program year's activities and determine if the SFA completed their on-site
monitoring and documentation by February 1st, or by the approved extended deadline. If the
deadline was not met, then the reviewer should, again, examine the prior year's on-site monitoring
documentation to determine if this is a trend or just a one-time occurrence. During the
on-site review procedures of the administrative review, the reviewer must complete the Off-site
Assessment Tool if it wasn't completed during the off-site review procedures, follow up
with the SFA staff if the Off-site Assessment Tool shows potential problems in meeting the
on-site monitoring requirements, and interview SFA staff to determine if the on-site monitoring
requirements are fully understood and whether the SFA is in compliance with the requirements.
The reviewer should review any documentation available on-site and complete question 903
on the On-site Assessment Tool. Question 903 addresses the following: were areas requiring
corrective action identified and was corrective action completed within 45 days? And does
the SFA's documentation indicate that corrective action was successful? To answer these questions
the reviewer must have completed the questions we just talked about on the off-site assessment
tool, questions 900 to 902. The intent of this Webinar is not to cover all the regulatory
requirements that an SFA must follow, so if you want more information about this requirement
you can find it in the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 210.18. And also we have a policy
memo, SP 14-2011, referenced on the slide here that offers additional guidance materials
and technical assistance. It also includes a prototype check list that SFAs can use to
conduct their on-site monitoring. So when deficiencies are identified by a reviewer,
the state agency must provide technical assistance, address any deficiencies through corrective
action, record deficiencies on the On-site Assessment Tool, and include deficiencies
in any subsequent corrective actions in the corrective action plan that's provided to
the SFA at the exit conference at the end of the administrative review. Corrective action
is considered appropriate and sufficient when the action permanently corrects the deficiency
and brings the SFA into compliance. The reviewer should determine the appropriate corrective
action, but some examples may include the SFA requesting an extension through the State
agency from the regional office to complete reviews in the current school year if the
reviewer finds that activities are not on track to be completed by February 1st; developing
procedures and a schedule for conducting the on-site reviews if they're not completed by
deadlines; and/or training the SFA staff so that they're familiar with and understand
their on-site monitoring requirements. As we mentioned earlier, on-site monitoring is
part of the general program compliance area of the administrative review and due to this
fiscal action is not required. However, FNS encourages State agencies to consider withholding
program payments in whole or in part to any SFA for repeated or egregious violations that
are not corrected. And you can find some additional information on withholding program payments
in the Fiscal Action module of the Administrative Review Guidance Manual. There's a section
on withholding payments. So that's it for SFA on-site monitoring. Does anybody have
any questions on this monitoring area? And, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to
ask a question at this time, please press * 1 on your phone.
Our next question is from Liz Solomon, and she's with the Ohio Department of Education.
Please go ahead. Hi there. I noticed on question 900 that there was just a space after the
question. Are we supposed to comment in that section? Yes. Sorry about that. I had to paste
a few things together that spanned pages, and I think I accidently cut out the word
"comments" from the top of that box. Okay, thank you. Sure. We'll make sure that on the
form it says "comments" there, which I'm pretty sure it does. And what are you looking for
there, besides what the questions ask? I guess just a brief summary of the SFA on-site monitoring
and how they make sure that their counting and claiming meets requirements, just a sentence
or two. Okay, thank you. Sure. Our next question comes
from Regina Madrid, and she's with the Student Nutrition Bureau. Yes, I joined a little late,
so I may have missed some of the beginning part of the discussion, but I want to make
sure I have this right, each SFA is required to complete the on-site monitoring form and
send it the state agency by February 1st. Is that correct? They have to document that
they've performed an on-site visit to each of their schools to ensure the accuracy of
their meal counting and claiming systems. So they can document it in different ways.
We provide a prototype check list in the memo that was referenced on one of the slides that
... and so the state agency would, during the review, complete the On-site and Off-site
Assessment Tools in coordination with the SFA, and part of it would be reviewing that
SFA's documentation to show that they've done their on-site reviews. Okay, perfect. Thank
you. Sure. And so what is it that's due to ... by February
1st? Well, you just need to make sure that they've completed their reviews by February
1st, so I'm sure some states may have their own forms, or you may have them submit that
check list, or some other type of documentation to show that they've done it. Okay, thank
you. Sure. And we have a question from Barbara Simmons, and she is with the Oklahoma Department
of Education. Please go ahead. We have had our question answered. You answered our question.
Thank you. And there are no further questions in queue at this time. Okay, we'll go ahead
and move on to the next topic then, and I'll turn it back over to Eric to talk about the
water requirements. All right, thank you, Heather. Moving on to water, the Healthy Hunger-Free
Kids Act of 2010 established a requirement for making water available at no charge to
children in the National School Lunch Program. And this in turn meant that compliance under
this requirement would be assessed during the administrative review process. One second.
I'm trying to get this slide to stay still. All right, so within the administrative review
process water is reviewed under the general program compliance section, which is Section
V of the Administrative Review Guidance Manual. Now, as it is mentioned, the law requires
water to be available during lunch. During breakfast the availability of water is encouraged
as well. As part of general program compliance the goal and purpose of monitoring water requirements
under the School Meal Programs is to ensure that children have access to water during
the lunch service. The question pertaining to the water requirement can be found in question
1300 of the On-site Assessment Tool. During the day of review's lunch meal service observation
the reviewer must determine whether free, potable water is available at each site selected
for review. Now, while on-site at the reviewed school the reviewers must ensure that the
school has offered potable water to students during that lunch meal period. Some examples
of how that water may be offered to students include: offering water pitchers and cups
at lunch tables, providing access to a water fountain adjacent to where meals are served,
and/or providing access to a faucet that allows students to fill their own bottles or cups
with drinking water. Any school that does not make free water available or restrict
access during the lunch meal period, is out of compliance, and I'll discuss what that
means in a moment. The intent of this Webinar, again, is not to cover the regulatory requirements
that SFA must follow, but if you do need more information about these requirements please
refer to the FNS Policy memo SP 28-2011, "Child Nutrition Reauthorization 2010: Water Availability
During National School Lunch Program Meal Service." Now, in terms of technical systems
and corrective action, when deficiencies are identified by the reviewer, meaning the school
does not make free water available or it restricts access during the lunch meal period, the state
agency must provide technical assistance, address the deficiency through corrective
actions, record all deficiencies in the On-site Assessment Tool, and include the deficiencies
and corrective actions in the corrective action plan provided to the SFA at the exit conference.
Corrective action is considered appropriate and sufficient when the action permanently
corrects the deficiency and brings the SFA into compliance. Now, in terms of fiscal action,
as we've discussed a little bit already, water is part of the general program compliance
section, and again, under that section fiscal action is not required. But that being said,
FNS does encourage state agencies to consider withholding program payments in whole or in
part, to any school food authority for repeated or egregious violations that are not corrected.
Now, for additional information on withholding program payments, please refer to the module
on withholding payments in Section VIII of the Administrative Review Guidance Manual.
And that's it for water. Let's see if any of you have questions on this area. Again
if you have questions, please press *1. And we have a question from Andrew McCloskey with
Tennessee Department. I've always had a question about what is "readily available," because
I was in a school earlier this year and it had a huge cafeteria, and when the pre-K and
K kids came in they were forced to sit on one end of the cafeteria and I walked it off
and the water fountain was over 100 feet away and it was an adult water fountain that none
of those kids could have reached up and got water out of anyway. So could you help define
what "readily available" means? Well, in our guidance manual we don't provide
a specific definition in terms of a specific distance or anything like that. We really
just encourage you as reviewers to use your best judgment. This is a requirement that
has been carried over from the CRE process, so a lot of this, I think, again, comes down
to judgment and then also just your best assessment based on what you've done historically and
then what you see in the school. And there's some discretion and latitude that you have
in terms of interpreting "readily available" and how that applies in a school. Does that
help, Andrew? Yes. When I was there I wrote under TA that they need to provide future
water in cups, but I was just wondering if we go back for a follow up and it's the same
situation if it would be time for fiscal action. Yeah. Because the water fountain was unusable
by the pre-K and K kids. Right. So it sounds like, at least for that segment of the population
it wasn't "readily accessible." Right. Yes, we just encourage you to use your best judgment,
and it sounds like you provided some technical assistance, so yes, but you could think about
withholding payments if it's a continued problem. Ok, thank you. Sure. Any other questions on
water? And we have a question from Louise Casillas with California. I'm wondering about
water availability on field trips. Must they provide water? That's a good question. We'll
look into that, and we'll get back to you on that through a future Q&A. Because I don't
know, of course the lunch meal period requirement, I'm not sure to what extent that applies to
field trips, but we'll look into that for you. Thank you. Thanks. And we have a question
from Brenda Hildebrand with the USDA. Well, actually, I want to do a few clarifications.
Water is not required on a field trip. It's encouraged. And it's in the memo that went
out that explains about potable water. Yes, it says that, "field trips may be exempted
from the water requirement." Yes, yes, correct. And the other thing is, Regina ... as far
as the FSA conducting an on-site review of all their sites to determine ... that is a
form that you provide to them with the memo and ... the school district level of the one
who does the monitoring in the central office, and you would look at that when you do your
on-site reviews. You don't have to have ... . And I do have a question on water, the question
is ... location. Now that is just for the ones that you review, because it just ..., for
example, if you went into a ... and you only ... one out of ten, you ... . Yes, this part
of the review is conducted during the on-site, so it would only be at the schools that are
selected for review. Is that the question? Yes. The question was kind of open-ended when
you say at each ..., I guess it says the guidance at the ..., right? Right, so it would be at
the schools selected for review. Okay, thank you. And there are no further questions in
queue at this time. Okay. Great, thank you. All right, I'll turn it back over to Heather
for our next section. Our next topic is outreach for the School Breakfast Program and the Summer
Food Service Program. As a way to increase participation and reach children in need,
Section 112 of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act required SFAs participating in the National
School Lunch Program to cooperate with participating Summer Food Service Program institutions to
distribute materials to inform families of the availability and the location of summer
food service and school breakfast meals. As part of the general program compliance the
goal of monitoring the SFA's School Breakfast Program and Summer Food Service Program Outreach
is to determine if an SFA conducts the required outreach activities to increase participation
in the School Breakfast Program and the Summer Food Service Program. The administrative review
form questions related to the outreach requirement are questions 1600 and 1601 in the Off-site
Assessment Tool, and question 1602 on the On-site Assessment Tool. The materials and
documentation of the SFAs' outreach activities must be reviewed for the current school year
to determine if their efforts are consistent with Program requirements. This is an area
where the reviewer may monitor the area entirely off-site with no additional field work. So
let's take a closer look at what the reviewer must consider. First, we'll take a look at
question 1600, which asks about the School Breakfast Program. For the School Breakfast
Program the reviewer must determine if the information provided by the SFA through the
Off-site Assessment Tool and any supporting documentation indicates that the SFA conducted
the required School Breakfast Program outreach, and that includes schools participating in
the School Breakfast Program must inform families of the availability of breakfast meals at
the beginning of the school year via the informational packets that are sent to each household with
free and reduced-price meal applications. In addition, schools should send reminders
regarding the availability of the School Breakfast Program multiple times throughout the school
year. If the school has not done either of these, they're out of compliance with this
requirement. So we'll talk about how to address non-compliance in just a few slides. So, for
the Summer Food Service Program, question 1601 asks about the outreach efforts for summer
food service. And like the breakfast outreach, the reviewer must determine if the information
provided by the SFA indicates that the SFA conducted the required summer food service
outreach. FNS requires SFAs to conduct outreach before the end of the school year to ensure
that eligible families are informed of the availability and location of Summer Food Service
Program meals. If the Summer Food Service Program is administered by a different State
agency, the two state agencies must work cooperatively to inform families of the availability and
location of Summer Food Service Program meals. If the school has not completed this, they
are out of compliance with this requirement. For school breakfast and summer food service
outreach, some acceptable outreach methods include providing outreach to children through
public address systems, or through means normally used to communicate with the households of
enrolled children, or by developing or disseminating printed or electronic materials to families
and school children. Question 1602 of the On-site Assessment Tool addresses both School
Breakfast and Summer Food Service Programs. It summarizes the off-site work into one question.
And if the information is collected off-site to the satisfaction of the reviewer, no additional
on-site field work is necessary. If you need more information about these requirements,
please reference the two memos listed on this slide, SP 15-2011 and SP 40-2011. When deficiencies
are identified by the reviewer, meaning that the SFA has not conducted the School Breakfast
or Summer Food Service Program outreach according to the requirements, like other areas, the
State agency must provide technical assistance, address any deficiencies through corrective
action, record all deficiencies on the Off-site Assessment Tool, and include deficiencies
and corrective actions in the corrective action plan that's provided to the SFA at the exit
conference. And again, corrective action is considered appropriate and sufficient when
it permanently corrects the problem and brings the SFA into compliance. With the other areas
that we've talked today, School Breakfast and Summer Food Service Program outreach is
part of the general program compliance requirements and fiscal action isn't required. But again
if you find repeat or egregious violations then FNS encourages you to consider withholding
program payments. And that's it for the School Breakfast and Summer Food Service outreach.
Any questions on this area? Again, for questions press *1. We do have a question coming from
the line of Jacqueline Quarry. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
I'm sorry about that. I'm just wondering as far as summer food or the outreach, if we
are reviewing a school toward the beginning of the school year would it be acceptable
to look at their plans for providing outreach later on in the school year, or could we look
at the previous year's efforts? I would say if you don't have anything to look at for
the current year, then looking at what they plan to do and what they did the previous
year would be a good way to assess compliance. That would make sense. Thank you. Sure. There
are no further questions. Okay. I'll turn it back over to Eric, and
we'll talk about the next topic, which is the Special Milk Program. Alright, thank you,
Heather. We'll start off again with the next slide. The Special Milk Program provides milk
to children in schools, residential childcare institutions, and also eligible camps that
do not participate in other federal child nutrition meal service programs. The Special
Milk Program reimburses schools and institutions for the milk served to eligible children.
Now, schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, or the School Breakfast
Program may also participate in the Special Milk Program to provide milk to children in
half-day, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs where children do not have access
to school meal programs. The intent of this Webinar is not to cover the regulatory requirements,
once again, that an SFA must follow. We are assuming that those participating understand
the requirements, but if you need more information on Special Milk requirements I encourage you
to refer to the regulations in 7 CFR 215. The intent of monitoring the Special Milk
Program is to determine whether the SFA is operating the program in compliance with the
regulatory requirements and in accordance with a State agency approved agreement. If
a school selected for administrative review does not operate in the Special Milk Program,
the State agency does not conduct this portion of the administrative review. The review questions
pertaining to the Special Milk Program are included in the supplemental form entitled
Special Milk Program and Administrative Review Form. The reviewer must use this form to complete
the Special Milk Program review. Now, the questions within the supplemental Special
Milk Program administrative review form may be completed either off-site through telephone
contact or e-mail, or on-site. For each school selected for administrative review that operates
in the Special Milk Program the reviewer must examine the Special Milk Program documentation
for that school. The on-site observation of the Special Milk Program is only required
if issues are discovered during the documentation review, or with the milk counting and/or claiming
in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program. There is one reference
to the Special Milk review on the administrative review's on-site assessment tool, and that
is in question 2000, and that also must be completed. What must a reviewer evaluate?
As you see on this slide, in order to evaluate the school's compliance with the Special Milk
Program requirements the review must include reviewing the pricing policy, a confirmation
that the SFA is operating at the approved SNP option, it must make sure that counting
and claiming procedures yield accurate claims, and there must be a determination that records
are retained for three years or until the resolution of audits. The reviewer must also
ensure that the school prices milk in accordance with FNS policy, the school or SFA maintains
documentation that supports the number of milks it serves daily and claims for reimbursement,
that milk orders and delivery records support the number of milks that are claimed for reimbursement,
and also that the SFA retains records for three years or until the resolution of audits.
A few more items, the reviewer must also ensure that the purchase price of milk on the most
recent claim for reimbursement matches the purchase price reflected on invoices. The
SFA must provide an accurate count of milk served each month at each school to the State
agency by the established due date for the monthly reimbursement claim. And finally,
the SFA transfers the eligibility status of each student accurately to the roster. The
State agency may look at this by comparing the point of service milk counts by student
or benefit category to the benefit issuance roster to ensure that students receiving free
milk are listed as eligible on the benefit issuance roster. As I mentioned earlier, the
on-site observation of the Special Milk Program is only required if issues are discovered
during the Special Milk Program documentation review, or with meal counting and/or claiming
of the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program. If an on-site review is
conducted, the reviewer must verify the information obtained during the documentation review.
A reviewer must also ensure that the school takes a point of service milk count and records
milk correctly, and that milk counts by category for the day of review do not vary unreasonably
in comparison to the previous five days. And again, as I mentioned earlier, the reviewer
must complete that supplemental Special Milk Program and administrative review form. When
deficiencies of these requirements are identified by the reviewer, the state agency must provide
technical assistance, address deficiencies through corrective actions, record all deficiencies
in the supplemental Special Milk and administrative review form, and also question 2000 of the
on-site assessment tool, and include deficiency and corrective action information in the corrective
action plan provided to the SFA at the exit conference. Now, corrective action is considered
appropriate and sufficient when the action permanently corrects the deficiency and brings
the SFA into compliance. Now, again, the state agency must take fiscal action for any claim
for reimbursement that is not properly payable. FNS requires fiscal action for all certification
and counting and claiming errors in SNP. The state agency must record counting and claiming
errors on Form S2, Other Meal Claim Errors, and they must record fiscal action on the
fiscal action workbook, Forms FA1, FA2, and FA3, if necessary. More information on fiscal
action procedures can be found in Section VIII of the Administrative Review Guidance
Manual. And that's it for the Special Milk Program. Are there any questions on this area?
Once again, if there are any questions, hit *1. And we do have a question coming from
the line of Laurie Strickland. Please go ahead. Yes, we're just curious, if the school is
only on Special Milk, it looks like they will never get reviewed because they would not
be up for an AR because they're not on National School Lunch. Is that my understanding? Yes,
that's a question that's come in online too, and we're going to do a Webinar with Q&As
and I think we'll have to address that one there. Okay, thank you.
That's a good question, though, yes. And we do have another question coming from the line
of Julie Maxwell. Hi, yes, I had the same question, so thank you. Okay. Any other questions
on milk? You have a question coming from the line of Sharon Welborn. I need to go back
to the Summer Food Service and School Breakfast outreach question. Is that okay if I digress
to that real quick? Sure. The question in the on-site basically says, it refers them
back to the off-site assessment and it says is the off-site assessment correct. What are
the monitors doing on-site to answer the on-site question? Let me pull those up real quick.
Let me get back to that area. I'm pulling up the questions here without going back in
the slide. Could you just ask the question one more time now that we have the questions
in front of us? Sure. I'm looking at the on-site question for the outreach for the School Breakfast
and Summer Food Service Programs, and the question itself basically says are the responses
from the off-site tool in compliance. And I'm just curious as to what the monitor is
doing on-site to answer that question. Right. This is an area where if you feel that the
off-site assessment sufficiently gauges their compliance, you don't have to do any on-site
work. But if you have questions after completing the on-site, maybe when you're on-site you
want to see the flier that got sent home or some other kind of documentation on-site,
so you would only be required to do any on-site activities if you had some questions after
completing the off-site portion. Okay, thank you. Sure. Thank you. And we do have another
question coming from the line of Wendy Barclay. Please go ahead. Wendy, your line is open.
Wendy, do you have your mute button on? Our question's been answered. Thank you. Okay.
All right, we have no further questions at this time. All right, thank you, everybody.
Now I'm going to turn it back over to Heather to take us through our final topic for this
webinar, which is competitive food services. Great. Thanks, Eric. Before I begin, most
of you probably know that earlier this year USDA published a proposed rule related to
competitive foods, so right now we're currently reviewing the public comments that we received
in response to that rule and developing an implementing rule. During the webinar we will
only be reviewing the current requirements which will apply to administrative reviews
in the coming school year, in 2013-14. We'll modify the administrative review process to
accommodate any new requirements that may result from an implementing rule. Competitive
foods are defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, 210.11 and 220.12, as any food item that is
sold in competition to the reimbursable school meal, and includes foods of minimal nutritional
value. Foods of minimal nutritional value are foods that fit into specific categories
defined in the competitive food services regulations, and are further categorized in things such
as candies, ice water, and chewing gums in Appendix B to Parts 210 and 220. So for the
purposes of this Webinar I'm not going to go into the details about the definitions
of competitive foods or foods of minimal nutritional value. We're assuming that you have a basic
knowledge and understanding of the requirements. But you can reference these sections of the
federal regulations if you want more additional information. Within the administrative review
process competitive foods are reviewed, again, like all these areas, under the general program
compliance section, which is Section V in your Administrative Review Guidance Manual.
It's prohibited to sell foods of minimal nutritional value in food service areas during meal periods.
The term "food service areas" is anywhere school meals are being served or consumed,
including classrooms and multi-purpose rooms that double as cafeterias during meal periods.
This applies to all school meal programs, not just lunch. As part of the general program
compliance the goal or purpose of monitoring the competitive foods requirement is to ensure
schools properly restrict the sale of foods of minimal nutritional value during the meal
service. The Administrative Review form questions that relate to competitive foods is question
1100 on the On-site Assessment Tool. So as you can see from the question on the slide,
the reviewer must, during the day of review's meal service observation, this includes breakfast
and lunch meal service observations, determine if competitive foods or foods of minimal nutritional
value are offered in any area where reimbursable meals are served and/or consumed during the
meal periods. So while on-site and during the meal service, the reviewers must ensure
that the school does not offer foods of minimal nutritional value as a competitive food item
in any area where the meals are served and consumed. And this doesn't only include the
meal service line, but also, as I mentioned, classroom and multi-purpose rooms that might
double as cafeterias. Vending machines turned on in areas where reimbursable meals are served
or consumed must also be checked for foods of minimal nutritional value, and at each
site selected for review. There are some exceptions to the requirement, and the exception applies
to foods that FNS has exempted from the foods of minimal nutritional value category. And
the exemption means that the foods are no longer considered foods of minimal nutritional
value. Exempted foods may be sold as a la carte competitive foods in food service areas
during meal periods. FNS maintains a list of exempted foods online. The resource which
is called "exemptions" under the competitive food services regulation is available on the
FNS PartnerWeb. Reviewers should use the most current exemption list as a resource when
uncertainty exists regarding whether a competitive food is exempted. As with the other areas
we've talked about, when deficiencies are identified by our reviewer, in this case it
means that foods of minimal nutritional value are sold in the food service area during a
meal period and the State agency must provide technical assistance, address deficiencies
through corrective actions, record deficiencies on the On-site Assessment Tool, and then include
deficiencies and corrective actions in the corrective action plan that is provided to
the SFA at the exit conference. As we've mentioned, corrective action is sufficient when the action
permanently corrects the problem and brings the SFA into compliance. In instances of non-compliance
the State agency must require, at a minimum, that the school no longer sell the items in
question during meal services in areas where reimbursable meals are served and/or consumed.
As we've discussed today, competitive foods is part of the general program compliance
area of the administrative review, and so fiscal action is not required. But again,
if you have a repeated problem or willful non-compliance, then we encourage you to consider
withholding program payments. One thing we just want to mention too, many States may
have more restrictive rules pertaining to competitive foods, and withholding federal
program payments for violations of State requirements is not allowable. As I mentioned, the proposed
rule related to competitive foods was published on February 8th of this year, and the title
of that was "National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs Nutrition Standards for
All Food Sold in Schools," as required by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. We are currently
reviewing the almost 250,000 public comments that we received in response to the rule,
and once an implementing rule is published it may impact the monitoring requirements
in this area. And just like any forthcoming policy, FNS will have to evaluate the administrative
review process to determine if any changes are needed, and of course notify State agencies
of any modified requirements. And that's it for competitive food. Does anybody have any
questions in this area? And, again, at this time, if you'd like to
ask a question, please press *1. And we have Andrew McCloskey, and he's with Tennessee.
Please go ahead. Yes, we talk about vending machines a lot, and I go in a lot of school
cafeterias that have Coke machines and snack machines plugged up and running during meal
service times. And the only thing that I have been told when I go in there is that they
tell the kids that they're not allowed to go to them during meal service. Now, that
may just be the day we're there, but what are we discussing when we're talking about
working vending machines in a meal service area in a situation like that? They really
aren't supposed to even be turned on or be functional. I suppose if it's not possible
to turn them off, if they have a staff person that is there making sure that the students
can't access them, but the vending machines should really be turned off so that they're
not at all accessible to the students. That's the way I understood it. I just wanted
to clarify. Yes. Thank you. Sure. And there are no further questions in queue at this
time. Okay, does anybody have any questions on anything that we've discussed today? We
can open it up to all the topics if there are any questions before we wrap up. And we
have a question from Jill Dawson with the state of Alaska. Please go ahead. Jill Dawson,
your line is open for a question. Sorry, I had it on mute. I had a question going back
to the Special Milk Program. I understand that the on-site is only required if there
are problems, issues discovered during the documentation review. Does that mean the off-site
review? Because I didn't see other documents that we would be reviewing to make that determination.
The other review form for Special Milk is the Supplemental Special Milk Administrative
Review Form, and that form, let me make sure I've got this right, is to be completed either
off-site, on the phone, or through e-mail, or you could also complete that form on-site
as well. But you can complete that Supplemental Special Milk form off-site. Okay, so my question
is it states in here that you complete that form during the on-site review, and so I was
just trying to determine what the documentation review entails, if that was the off-site review
form or if there were other documents that USDA is considering for that documentation
review. One second. I'm just pulling up the form. In the form itself, on that supplemental
review form, there are a number of questions that cover documentation. So for example,
question four: "Does the SFA properly retain all ... records for three years after the
final claim for reimbursement for the fiscal year, or until resolution of any audits?"
That's question four from that form. And then the reviewer indicates "Yes" or "No" and then
provides any needed comments. When you're looking at a documentation review, I would
want to say that you can just find most of that material and content in that supplemental
form. Okay, thank you. Sure. You're welcome. Thank you. Our next question comes from Wendy
Barclay, and she's the Washington Superintendent. Please go ahead. Actually, this is Angela
from Washington State. My question has to do with one of the very first slides that
was on the on-site monitoring, and the slide was something to the effect about just picking
one site. Can you either go back to that slide or explain what that meant? Is the state agency
only has to visit one site with the Special Milk Program? I was a little confused by that.
Sorry, are you referring to the Special Milk or are you referring to on-site monitoring?
On-site monitoring, one of the very first slides that we saw. Let me say what I think
you might be referring to, and if not let me know. But if the SFA only has one site
in the SFA, they're not required to conduct the on-site monitoring. I understand that.
We encourage it, but it's not a requirement if there's only one meal service site in the
SFA. Is that what your question was referring to? No. Okay. Keep going, scroll another slide
or two down, keep going. No, no, that's not it. I'm sorry. I know if the SFA only has
one site they don't have to do them, but it was something else to the effect about visiting
only one site that I thought I saw and I didn't understand that. I'm not seeing that slide
come up now. All right, well we'll just look at that again when these slides are published
for us to review. Okay, they actually are in the handout section. Okay, great. Up in
the upper right hand corner, it's those three little pieces of paper. Okay. All right, thank
you. Yes, if you can find it there and come back on, we'll try to figure it out for you.
Okay, thank you. Sure. And, if there are any further questions at this time, please press
*1. There are no further questions in queue. We have had a couple of questions come in
online that we'll go ahead and answer real quick. One is about School Breakfast outreach,
and the question is: "Would it be acceptable for the school to list the breakfast times
on the September menu that goes home to the parents and then on other menus throughout
the year, or does the School Breakfast Program flier have to go out in the beginning of the
school year?" And the intent is that a School Breakfast flier would go out with the same
materials that families are provided, the free and reduced price applications. The menu
could be used to meet the multiple outreach throughout the year requirement if the menu
is generally a way that the schools communicate with the households. That might meet that
requirement. But the flier should go with the application materials to the family at
the beginning of the year. Another question that came in that we talked about earlier
are the Special Milk Program only SFAs, and we'll get an answer for that and try to include
it in the next Webinar, which is July 10th, it's going to be Q&As, so we'll try to come
back with an answer at that one. The next question: "Is there any guidance on appropriate
pricing of competitive foods? For example, reimbursable items are also a la carte items
but priced lower than the complete unitized meal. Is that seen as competitive foods, a
school competing reimbursable with a la carte?" I haven't seen any guidance on the appropriate
pricing of competitive foods, but again, we'll try to get some more information on that and
include it in the Q&A Webinar. And we do have a question online. Okay. And the question
is from Sharon Welborn, and she's with the Texas Department of Agriculture. Hey, you
guys, it's Sharon. Thanks for doing this. My question has to do with the School Breakfast
and Summer Food Service Program outreach. We have many school districts that use online
or Web-based applications, so the only information they may send to the household is a letter
to the household. Is that the expectation that you guys have is that it will go with
a letter to the household, because they're not sending applications to every household.
Yes, however they would normally transmit that material, if that's electronically or
if it's with the letter letting them know about their benefit status, sometime at the
beginning of the year, just so the household is aware that school breakfast is available.
Does that help? Yes, that's great. Thank you very much. Sure. We have another question
that came in online. "With on-site monitoring for the SFAs, does the SA review the on-site
monitoring form for the sites of review, or all the sites in the district?" And you would
just be looking at the sites that are selected for review, as a sampling to represent the
SFAs. Another question that came in online: "Is it acceptable for the breakfast promotion
to just use electronic format, or does it have to be a hard copy?" Again, the intent
is to make sure that all of the families in the SFA are aware that breakfast is available,
and I don't know, if that's the standard way that the school communicates with families
and that's the only way that the school communicates with families, that might be acceptable. Even
though we are in the electronic age my guess is that not all families access electronics
in the same way, and that may exclude a portion of the population. So again, this is another
area where you have to exercise your judgment and determine if the activities that they've
conducted have really made all families aware of the availability of school breakfast. And
there are no questions on the phone lines at this time. Okay, and actually someone wrote
in to answer a question that had been asked. She writes -- thanks, Liz Solomon: "I believe
the a la carte pricing guidelines are included in the paid lunch equity memo. A la carte
foods must generate the same percent in revenue as they cost." So hopefully that helps. Thanks,
Liz. And there are no further questions in queue. Okay, well this concludes our Webinar.
Again, anything that we were not able to answer today we'll include in one of our upcoming
Q&A Webinars, which are going to take place July 10th and July 17th. We want to thank
you all very much for participating. We are in the process of updating all of the administrative
review materials based on your feedback that we received at the in-person trainings. We
expect to post a revised set of materials sometime in July. So thank you again for your
participation today, and if you have any additional questions after today's Webinar you can send
them to the following e-mail address and we will issue answers to the questions in an
upcoming Webinar. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference
for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.