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/SRSDResolver.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@michigan.gov cepi@michigan.gov  517-335-0505 select option “3” Melanie Brummeler  brummelerm@michigan.gov brummelerm@michigan.gov  517-373-4020