State Agency Directors/SFA Directors (State, Local, and Tribal Government)

Attachment B.10 – Paper School Food Authority Survey

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is OMB-NEW.  The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 60 minutes or 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

The purpose of this SFA School Nutrition Management Information System (MIS) Survey is to assess your School Food Authority’s (SFA) school nutrition electronic management information system (MIS). In addition to a general description of the features of your MIS, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is interested in what data are available in your MIS, the level of aggregation of such data, and how you use such data to manage your school nutrition program operations. The information that you provide will be used only for the purposes of this study.

Definitions:

For this survey, the term school nutrition includes only the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP).

School nutrition MIS means computer software and electronic systems used to record, manage and track major program functions such as meal claiming, point of service, verification, household applications and certification, direct verification and certification, menu planning, production records, and others. We do not consider information captured, stored, and analyzed in spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel to be an electronic MIS. Subsequent mentions of “MIS” refer to your school nutrition MIS.

Structure of the Survey:

This survey is organized into three main sections, each covering a major topic. These sections are:

1. An overview description of your current electronic school nutrition MIS

2. Data elements and reporting capabilities available in your electronic school nutrition MIS

3. Technical features of your electronic school nutrition MIS

The questions in each of these three sections are organized to allow different individuals to provide answers, if needed. Ideally, the Director of Food Services or a designated representative who is familiar with the school nutrition MIS would answer the questions in Sections 1 and 2. Section 3 is best answered by an individual with technical understanding of the school nutrition MIS. These are just suggestions; any SFA or school district staff member who is knowledgeable about the MIS may respond.

Section 1: Description of SFA School Nutrition MIS

In this section, we ask questions about the background of your current school nutrition MIS and the costs associated with acquiring and maintaining it.

The questions are grouped into three areas:

1. Overview – the general description of the type of software/systems you have, including how you acquired them, the functional modules available, and how long it took to conceive, develop and implement your school nutrition MIS.

2. Costs – the expenditures associated with the acquisition, ongoing operations of your school nutrition MIS, and any planned upgrades.

3. Challenges and Future Plans – the extent to which your current MIS meets your needs and plans to upgrade or replace it.

Overview

We will start by asking you some general questions about your SFA and the electronic tools you use to manage your operations.

1. In general, how do you manage your SFA’s school nutrition program data? Remember that use of spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel is not considered an electronic MIS for our purposes. Check all that apply.

	Custom software developed in-house	Q3
	Custom software developed by a vendor (not including commercial off-the-shelf [COTS] software that is later customized)	Q3
	Software purchased or licensed from a vendor (including commercial off-the-shelf [COTS] software that is later customized)	Q3
	We use a statewide MIS provided by our state’s child nutrition agency	Q3
	We use basic spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel	Q2
	We collect and store the data manually on paper	Q2

2. Why do you not use an electronic MIS to manage at least part of your school nutrition program data? Check all that apply.

	The available software is too expensive	END
	We cannot find a product that will work for us	END
	We do not have the staff to develop one	END
	We do not have staff trained to use the software	END
	We tried in the past, but it didn’t work for us	END
	Other reason (please specify) ____________________________________________________	END

3. How many individuals employed in your SFA school nutrition operations are users of your school nutrition MIS? (Please include all individuals who enter, view, download, or upload data and/or reports.)

Number of Users_________________________________

4. Which of the following modules do you have in your current school nutrition MIS? Please indicate the vendor of the modules you have and approximately how long you have had them.

Module	Have	Vendor	No. of Years
Applications Scanner	Yes No	{Select from dropdown list} Agilysys, Inc. Barrington Software, Inc. Chartwells School Dining Services Cybersoft Technologies, Inc. Education Management Systems, Inc. Focal Tech, Inc. Food Service Solutions, Inc. Harris School Solutions Heartland School Solutions Horizon Software Meal Magic Corporation Michoice Technology Systems, Inc. PCS Revenue Control Systems, Inc. Wordware, Inc. Other (please specify) _______	{Select from dropdown list}  Less than 1 year  1 year to less than 4 years  4 years to less than 7 years  7 years to less than 11 years  11 years to less than 15 years  15 years or more
Online Application	Yes No
Eligibility Determination	Yes No
Direct Certification (Matching)	Yes No
Meal Claiming	Yes No
Point of Sale (POS) System	Yes No
Financial Management (School Nutrition Revenues and Expenditures)	Yes No
Inventory Management	Yes No
Facilities and Physical Asset Management	Yes No
USDA Foods Tracking	Yes No
Online Payments from Households	Yes No
Order Processing	Yes No
Meal Production	Yes No
Menu/Nutrient Analysis	Yes No
Menu Planning	Yes No
Tracking Staff Training (e.g. food safety/HACCP)	Yes No
Other (please specify) ________	Yes No
Other (please specify) ________	Yes No

5. Please tell us if your needs for the following modules are fully met, partially met, or not met at all by your current school nutrition MIS.

Module	Fully met	Partially met	Not met at all
Applications Scanner			
Online Application			
Eligibility Determination			
Direct Certification (Matching)			
Meal Claiming			
Point of Sale (POS) System			
Financial Management (School Nutrition Revenues and Expenditures)			
Inventory Management			
Facilities and Physical Asset Management			
USDA Foods Tracking			
Online Payments from Households			
Order Processing			
Meal Production			
Menu/Nutrient Analysis			
Menu Planning			
Tracking Staff Training (e.g. food safety/HACCP)			
Other (please specify) ________			

6. What entity primarily manages your school nutrition MIS? By primarily manage we mean responsible for arranging staff access to the system and overseeing contracts with vendor(s) (if applicable). Check only one.

	School Nutrition department	Q7
	School District/LEA IT department	Q7
	State School Nutrition agency	Q7
	Vendor/Contractor	Q7
	Other (please specify) __________________________________________________________	Q7

Costs

Next, we will ask you questions about the costs of your current school nutrition MIS, including cost to develop, implement, upgrade, and operate your school nutrition MIS and the sources of funds used to finance it. Please estimate costs related to NSLP/SBP operations only.

Initial Development and Upgrade Costs for Current Modules

The first questions focus on the costs your state incurred in procuring or developing your current school nutrition MIS and for any subsequent upgrades. For initial development, please include costs of direct development, software development tools, hardware and any other resources expended in initially developing or purchasing each module. For upgrades, please include costs for changes, other than routine updates, made to the software by the software vendor or your in-house IT staff to either enhance existing functions or add new functions. These are sometimes called “add-on” enhancements and should only include changes procured outside of any maintenance contract(s).

7. Please indicate the cost to initially develop and implement each of the modules in your current school nutrition MIS and for any subsequent upgrades. Please choose one response in each column for each module.

Module	Initial Development and Implementation Costs	Upgrade Costs (If non-routine upgrade[s] occurred after initial implementation)
Applications Scanner	 No direct cost to state school nutrition agency (upgrades are made by state IT staff)  Less than $50,000  $50,000 - $99,000  $100,000 - $299,999  $300,000 - $499,999  $500,000 - $699,999  $700,000 - $999,999  $1,000,000 -$4,999,999  $5,000,000 or more  Don’t know	 No upgrades purchased  No direct cost to SFA (upgrades are made by SFA IT staff)  Less than $50,000  $50,000 - $99,000  $100,000 - $299,999  $300,000 - $499,999  $500,000 - $699,999  $700,000 - $999,999  $1,000,000 -$4,999,999  $5,000,000 or more  Don’t know
Online Application
Eligibility Determination
Direct Certification (Matching)
Meal Claiming
Point of Sale (POS) System
Financial Management (School Nutrition Revenues and Expenditures)
Inventory Management
Facilities and Physical Asset Management
USDA Foods Tracking
Online Payments from Households
Order Processing
Meal Production
Menu/Nutrient Analysis
Menu Planning
Tracking Staff Training (e.g. food safety/HACCP)
Other (please specify) ________

8. How did you fund the initial development or purchase of your current school nutrition MIS? Check all that apply.

	Local Education Agency (LEA)/General education funds	Q9
	Funds from the nonprofit school food service account	Q9
	State school nutrition funds	Q9
	Federal school nutrition grants	Q9
	Other federal funds (please specify)_______________________________________________	Q9
	Obtained a loan	Q9
	Other grant monies (please specify) _______________________________________________	Q9
	Other source (please specify) ______________________________________________	Q9
	I don’t know	Q9

Software Upgrade Costs

Next, we are interested in how often you upgrade your school nutrition MIS. “Upgrade” means changes other than routine updates made to the software by the software vendor or your in-house IT staff to either enhance existing functions or add new functions.

9. Generally, how often do you upgrade your school nutrition MIS modules (both in-house or software purchased from a vendor)? Check all that apply.

	On an as needed basis	 Q10
	Quarterly	 Q10
	Semi-annually	 Q10
	Annually	 Q10
	Other (please specify) ________________________________________________________	 Q10
	Don’t know	 Q10
	Never upgraded	 Q10

10. For the components of your current school nutrition MIS that are provided by a vendor, do you own or lease (pay regular license fees for) them? Check all that apply.

	We own the software (i.e., own copyright or equivalent)	Q11
	We have a renewable license to use the software	Q11
	We have no MIS components provided by a vendor	Q11
	State owns rights to software but grants our SFA usage rights	Q11
	We use open source software (available for free to anyone)	Q11
	Other (please specify) __________________________________________	Q11

Operating Costs

Next, we will ask you about the costs of operating and maintaining your MIS. “Operating” refers to the regular use of your MIS to manage your school nutrition activities. “Maintaining” refers to scheduled or ad-hoc activities you perform on your school nutrition MIS to ensure optimal performance. Please estimate costs related to NSLP/SBP operations only.

11. You indicated that you purchased all or some of your current school nutrition MIS from a vendor. Do you have a maintenance contract with your vendor(s)? Check only one.

	Yes, our SFA has maintenance contract(s) with all of our vendor(s)	Q13
	Yes, our SFA has maintenance contract(s) with some of our vendor(s)	Q12
	No, we have no maintenance contracts with any of our vendors	Q12

12. You indicated that you do NOT have a maintenance contract with at least one of your current school nutrition MIS vendor(s). How do you update that vendor’s school nutrition MIS? Check all that apply.

	We make changes using in-house IT staff	Q13
	We make changes using contracted software developers	Q13
	We do not make any changes to it	Q13
	Other (please specify) _______________	Q13

13. What support functions does your maintenance contract(s) cover? Check all that apply.

	Regular updates to conform with FNS policies	Q14
	Other updates to system functionality or features	Q14
	Patches and fixes to problems	Q14
	Training (remote, on- or off-site)	Q14
	Backup and recovery	Q14
	In-person software support	Q14
	In-person hardware support	Q14
	Remote software support	Q14
	Technical support via telephone or online	Q14
	Other (please specify) _______________________________________	Q14
	Don’t know	Q14

14. Turning now to annual school nutrition MIS operational costs, for each of the following items, indicate the cost to operate your current school nutrition MIS in the 2015-2016 school year. Please enter $0 if there was no cost for a particular item.

Operational cost item	Annual cost ($)
Maintenance contract fees
Software updates made to comply with FNS policy changes (e.g., new reporting forms, new meal patterns)
Hardware replacement (If you update hardware less frequently than once per year, please estimate the per year cost of those expenses)
License fees to use school nutrition software	{If Q10 answer choice 2 selected, this should not equal $0}
Other (please specify) _____________________________________
Other (please specify) _____________________________________

Future Plans

Next, we will ask you about plans and expectations you may have for replacing your school nutrition MIS in the next 12 months. When answering questions on plans over the next 12 months, please exclude updates made to your school nutrition MIS to comply with policy updates by FNS. Policy updates refer to the regulations or policy memoranda that FNS occasionally issues to change requirements or provide guidance on the administration of the school nutrition programs.

15. Are you expecting to make non-routine upgrades or expansions to your current school nutrition MIS in the next 12 months? Check all that apply.

	Purchase new modules	Q16
	Perform software upgrades	Q16
	Perform hardware upgrades	Q16
	Add new sites to the system	Q16
	Other upgrade (please specify) _______________________________________	Q16
	No upgrades or expansions planned for next 12 months	Q16
	Don’t know	Q16

16. When do you expect to replace all or part of your current school nutrition MIS? Check only one.

	In less than 1 year	Q17
	1 year to less than 3 years	Q17
	3 years to less than 6 years	Q17
	6 years or more	Q17
	No current replacement plans	Q19
	Don’t know	Q19

17. You indicated that you expect to replace all or part of your current school nutrition MIS in the future. How do you anticipate acquiring a new MIS or a module? Check all that apply.

	Develop customized MIS using in-house resources	Q18
	Develop customized MIS using a vendor	Q18
	Purchase a new MIS product from a vendor	Q18
	We have not yet made a decision	Q18
	Other (please specify) _______________________________________________________	Q18
	Don’t know	Q18

18. How much do you anticipate the cost, in total, will be to replace all or part of your current school nutrition MIS? Include all costs such as personnel, software licenses, and hardware. Check only one.

	Less than $50,000	Q19
	$50,000 - $99,000	Q19
	$100,000 - $249,000	Q19
	$250,000 – $499,999	Q19
	$500,000 - $999,999	Q19
	$1,000,000 - $2,999,999	Q19
	$3,000,000 or more	Q19
	Don’t know	Q19

Section 2: Data Elements and Reporting

Section 2 of the survey focuses on the types of data or data “elements” you collect in your current school nutrition MIS. Some of these are data you report to the State agency or FNS, but others may not be reported outside of your SFA.

We have grouped the data into five categories:

1. Reimbursement claims

2. Free and Reduced Price Eligibility Determinations and Verification

3. Meal Service and Nutrition Information

4. Financial Management

5. Other Data Elements

In addition to asking whether the data are in your school nutrition MIS, we also want to know how frequently you collect them, the level of detail (either SFA or school/site), and whether you generate reports with the data.

Claims for Reimbursement

First, we will ask you about the capabilities of your current school nutrition MIS in helping you manage reimbursement claims.

19. Does your school nutrition MIS track or assign eligibility to meals that qualify for additional FNS reimbursements for SFAs serving a high percentage of low-income students? Please choose Frequency, Finest level of detail and Internal SFA reports for all data that are available in your MIS.

Reimbursement type	Data are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available	Internal SFA reports are generated from these data
Additional 2-cent reimbursement for lunches served in low-income schools (60% or more qualify for free or reduced price meals from the second preceding school year)	 Yes  No  Not Applicable	{Choose one from dropdown box} Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Site or School SFA	Yes No
Reimbursements for breakfasts served in schools eligible for Severe Need breakfasts	 Yes  No  Not Applicable			Yes No

Free and Reduced Price Eligibility Determinations and Verification

Next, we will ask you some questions about the capabilities of your current school nutrition MIS in helping you manage free and reduced price eligibility determinations and verification.

20. Do you use your current school nutrition MIS to assist with verification of household applications?

	Yes	Q21
	No	Q22
	Don’t know	Q22
	Not applicable, all schools using Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) or Provision 2 or 3	Q22

21. You indicated that you use your current school nutrition MIS to assist with verification of household applications. Which of the following data elements does your MIS track for verification? Check all that apply.

	Error Prone applications	Q22
	Applications selected for verification sample	Q22
	Applications and students confirmed through Direct Verification	Q22
	Results for Free Categorically Eligible verifications, by applications and students (no change, responded changed to reduced price or paid, no response paid)	Q22
	Results for Free Income verifications, by applications and students (no change, responded changed to reduced price or paid, no response paid)	Q22
	Results for Reduced Price Income verifications, by applications and students (no change, responded changed to free or paid, no response paid)	Q22
	Total number of questionable applications verified for cause as of November 15	Q22

Meal Service and Nutrition Information

The next set of questions focuses on the data in your MIS related to meal service and nutrition. We are interested in how you collect and store information on reimbursable meals.

22. At what level of detail do you record reimbursable meal information? Check all that apply.

	We record information for each meal for each student	Q23
	We record total number of reimbursable meals served to all students	Q23
	Other (please specify) _________________________________________________	Q23

23. How do you record reimbursable breakfast and lunch meals served at the point of sale? Check all that apply.

	Point of Sale (POS) terminal that links to the MIS	Q24
	Manually such as paper, tally sheet or clicker	Q29
	Other (please specify) ____________________________________________	Q29

24. You indicated that you use your POS system to record reimbursable meals served. How does it record the meals served? Check all that apply.

	Finger imaging	Q25
	Student enters/keys in ID number	Q25
	Cashier student identification and selection on terminal screen	Q25
	Student ID card swipe	Q25
	Student ID card scan	Q25
	Other (please specify) ______________________________________________________	Q25

25. Does your POS system have the capability to record each lunch meal component served to a child as a part of his/her reimbursable meal?

	Yes	Q26
	No	Q28
	Don’t know	Q28

26. Do cashiers in your SFA record each lunch meal component served to a child on the POS interface?

	Yes	Q27
	No	Q28

27. You indicated that cashiers record each lunch meal component served in the POS. Does the POS system determine whether the meal is reimbursable?

	Yes, if the cashier enters the correct number and type of components in the transaction, the meal is counted as reimbursable	Q28
	No, the cashier enters the components, but then also selects a separate key or button indicating that the meal is reimbursable. The cashier makes the final decision.	Q28

28. What student certification information does your MIS import into your POS system?

	Student certification data is not imported; it is entered manually	Q29
	Free certification status is imported	Q29
	Free certification status and the source of direct certification is imported (e.g., SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, Foster)	Q29
	I don’t know	Q29

29. Are any of the following data available in your school nutrition MIS? Check all that apply.

Data	Are Data available in MIS?
USDA Standardized Recipes used	 Yes  No  I don’t know
Child Nutrition Labeled items used	 Yes  No  I don’t know
Local Recipes	 Yes  No  I don’t know
Smart Snacks Nutrition Profiles	 Yes  No  I don’t know

Financial Management

Next, we will ask you about the types of financial data your school nutrition MIS collects and generates. Financial data include revenues received and expenditures incurred as part of your regular school nutrition operations.

30. For each of the following types of revenue data, please indicate whether the data element is available in your school nutrition MIS, and if so, the frequency with which it is collected, the level of detail, and whether reports are generated from the data.

Revenue line item	Data are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available	Internal SFA reports available from these data
USDA Meal Reimbursements	 Yes  No	{Choose one from dropdown box} Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Individual Site/School SFA	 Yes  No
Student Meal Payments	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Adult Meal Revenues	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
State/Local Meal Reimbursements	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
USDA Foods Monetary Value	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Non-Program Food Sales, including A La Carte Sales, second meals and Vending	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Contracted/Catering Sales	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other State Funding	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Funds Transferred in	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Grants	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Interest	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other(please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No

31. For each of the following types of expenditure data, please indicate whether the data element is available in your school nutrition MIS and, if so, the frequency with which it is collected, the level of detail, and whether reports are generated from the data.

Expenditure line items	Data are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available	Internal SFA reports available from these data
Purchased Food	 Yes  No	{Choose one from dropdown box} Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Individual Site/School SFA	 Yes  No
Food Production and Operating Supplies	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
USDA Foods Delivery/Handling/Storage Charges	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Labor Costs (Salaries and Benefits)	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Equipment Purchases (>$5000)	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Purchased Services	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Indirect Cost Charges	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Funds Transferred Out	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No

32. Does your School Food Authority sell non-program foods? ”Non-program foods” means foods and beverages purchased with nonprofit school food service account funds and sold to students but not as a reimbursable meal or snack (including a la carte, second meals and vending).

	Yes	Q33
	No	Q34

33. You indicated that your SFA sells non-program foods. Does your current school nutrition MIS collect non-program food costs, revenues, and sales data? Please choose Frequency, Finest level of detail and Internal SFA reports for all data available in your MIS.

Non-program foods data	Data are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available	Internal SFA reports available from these data
Food Costs	 Yes  No	{Choose one from dropdown box} Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Site/School SFA	 Yes  No
Labor Costs	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Revenues	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Individual Item Sales	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No

34. Does your current school nutrition MIS generate paid lunch equity calculations? These are the annual calculations required to determine whether you need to raise your paid lunch prices or contribute an equivalent amount of funds to the nonprofit school food service account.

	Yes	Q35
	No	Q35
	Don’t know	Q35

35. What types of performance and operating efficiency measures does your current school nutrition MIS generate? Please choose Frequency of collection and Finest level of detail for all data available in your MIS.

Performance and operating efficiency measures	Data to calculate these measures are available in MIS	Calculated measures are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available
Meals per labor hour	 Yes  No	 Yes  No	{Choose one from dropdown box} Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Site/School SFA
Meal equivalents (e.g., ratio of breakfasts to lunch)	 Yes  No	 Yes  No
Percentage of certified students served by meal type (Free/Reduced Price/Paid)	 Yes  No	 Yes  No
Percentage of meals reimbursed by category (Free/Reduced Price/Paid)	 Yes  No	 Yes  No
Targeted maximum cost per meal (“plate costs”)	 Yes  No	 Yes  No
Other (please specify) _____________	 Yes  No	 Yes  No
Other (please specify) _____________	 Yes  No	 Yes  No

Other Data Elements

The next set of questions on data elements do not fall into any of the previous categories. They focus on data available on SFA operational and other administrative activities.

36. What types of professional standards and training data does your current school nutrition MIS collect? Please choose Frequency, Finest level of detail and Internal SFA reports for all data available in your MIS.

Professional standards and training data	Data are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available	Internal SFA reports available from these data
Training hours offered	 Yes  No	{Choose one from dropdown box} Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Individual Site/School SFA	 Yes  No
Training hours logged (total)	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Individual SFA employee training hours tracking	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Employees meeting professional standards	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) _____________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No

37. What types of school food safety inspection data does your current school nutrition MIS collect? Please choose Frequency, Finest level of detail and Internal SFA reports for all data available in your MIS.

School food safety inspection data	Data are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available	Internal SFA reports available from these data
Number of inspections	 Yes  No	{Choose one from dropdown box} Daily Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Site/School SFA	 Yes  No
Results of food safety inspections (e.g., scores or pass/fail)	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Corrective actions taken after inspection results	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No

38. Does your SFA have a contract with a food service management company (FSMC)?

	Yes	Q39
	No	Q40

39. What types of FSMC contracts data does your current school nutrition MIS collect? Please choose Frequency, Finest level of detail and Internal SFA reports for all data available in your MIS.

FSMC contracts data	Data are available in MIS	Frequency of collection (Please select most frequent level for entering data)	Finest level of detail available	Internal SFA reports available from these data
Data to support monitoring of the contract (e.g. tracking receipt of rebates, discounts and credits)	 Yes  No	{Choose one from dropdown box} Daily Monthly Quarterly Annually	{Choose one from dropdown box} Site/School SFA	 Yes  No
Data to support SFA recordkeeping	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Data and logs to support bids/procurement of FSMC services	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No			 Yes  No

Reporting Capabilities and Data Quality

The next questions focus on the reporting capabilities of your current school nutrition MIS and the quality of the data in the MIS. We also ask about the processes you have within your school nutrition MIS to ensure that data is accurate (e.g., edit checks) and has not been tampered with or manipulated (data integrity).

40. Do you use your current school nutrition MIS to automatically generate any of the following mandatory reports to the state? ”Automatically” refers to the ability to generate the report from your MIS without compiling information manually from multiple sources. For each report type, please indicate which of the four quality categories best describes your rating of the report generated in your school nutrition MIS.

Report name	MIS generates this report	Quality
Form FNS-10, Report on School Program Operations (monthly claim for reimbursement)	 Yes  No	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Form FNS-742, School Food Authority Verification Collection Report	 Yes  No	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Form FNS-874 (formerly 742A), LEA Second Review of Applications Report	 Yes  No  Not applicable	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Form FNS-822, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program Participation Report (FFVP schools, enrollment, and funding)	 Yes  No  Not applicable	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Form FNS-828, SFA Paid Lunch Report (most frequently charged price at elementary, middle and high school levels)	 Yes  No  Not applicable	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs
Other (please specify) ________	 Yes  No	[Excellent]Meets or exceeds all our needs [Good] Meets most of our needs [Adequate] Meets some of our needs [Poor] Meets few, if any, of our needs

41. Which of the following types of analysis and tracking of data are you able to perform using your current school nutrition MIS? Check all that apply.

	Standard, summary reports that came with the software	Q42
	Standard, detailed reports that came with the software	Q42
	Customized reports by choosing data categories	Q42
	Customized reports by writing code such as structured query language (SQL), Crystal Reports, etc.	Q42
	Management dashboards or interfaces that provide visual analysis of data or key indicators	Q42
	Scorecards that show progress of specified measures against their targets	Q42
	Other reports (please specify) ________________________________________	Q42
	Our school nutrition MIS does not perform analysis and tracking of data	Q42

42. What data quality and integrity checks are built into your current school nutrition MIS? Check all that apply.

	Incomplete applications	Q44
	Over-claims (for example, number of meals claimed greater than student enrollment)	Q44
	Duplicate students (for example, same student claimed more than once for same meal service)	Q44
	Required claim edit checks	Q44
	Reasonableness of data (for example, system only accepts values within an anticipated range)	Q44
	Audit logs which record all user activities	Q44
	Reports with missing data are rejected	Q44
	Checks to ensure data are not manipulated outside of the software	Q44
	Other (please specify) ______________________________________________________	Q44
	Other (please specify)______________________________________________________	Q44
	Other (please specify)______________________________________________________	Q44
	Don’t know	Q43
	Our school nutrition MIS does not provide data quality and integrity checks	Q43

43. You indicated that your current school nutrition MIS does not provide data quality and integrity checks or that you are unsure if it does. How do you ensure that your data is accurate? Check all that apply.

	Manually check all reports	Q44
	Manually check randomly selected reports	Q44
	We don’t check data accuracy	Q44
	Other (please specify) _______________________________________________________	Q44
	Don’t know	Q44

44. In using your school nutrition MIS, do you face any of the following challenges concerning data collection? Check all that apply.

	The level of detail does not meet our needs	Q45
	The data is not adequately secured or protected from external manipulation	Q45
	The level of security makes it difficult to use the system	Q45
	Not all users are adequately trained to use the system	Q45
	Data is collected to fulfill an old FNS/State report form and there is too much lag time to reprogram the system to meet the requirements of the new report form	Q45
	Other (please specify) _______________________________________	Q45
	I do not face any challenges with data collection	Q45

45. In using your school nutrition MIS, do you face any of the following challenges concerning data aggregation? Check all that apply

	Our data are spread over disparate systems, making data aggregation time consuming	Q46
	The data are too fine-grained, making it difficult to aggregate them	Q46
	Compiling all or some of our data requires manual data re-entry tasks	Q46
	Other (please specify) _______________________________________	Q46
	I do not face any challenges with data aggregation	Q46

46. In using your school nutrition MIS, do you face any of the following challenges concerning reporting? Check all that apply.

	Reports do not cover all topics relevant to management of the program	Q47
	Reports are not available at the level of detail needed to support program management	Q47
	All or some of the reports to the state involve manual compilation	Q47
	Data is reported in a format to fulfill an old FNS/State report form and there is too much lag time to reprogram the system to meet the requirements of the new report form	Q47
	Other (please specify) _______________________________________	Q47
	I do not face any challenges with reporting	Q47

Section 3: Technical Features of School Nutrition MIS

Section 3 of the survey contains questions about the technical features of your current school nutrition MIS. In particular, we will cover the following topics:

1. Copyright Protection – Copyright protection for your custom-built software.

2. Interoperability – How your system connects and shares data with other systems.

3. Architecture and Deployment – How you access and store data within your system.

4. Backup and Data Security – How your system performs backups and secures sensitive student data.

Copyright Protection

The following questions focus on copyright protection for your in-house or custom developed software.

47. Is any component of your in-house or custom-built school nutrition MIS protected by copyright? Check only one. [Note to Programmer: Ask only if Question 1=1 or 2, that is “Custom software developed in-house” or “Custom software developed by a contractor (not including commercial off-the-shelf software that is later customized”, else skip to Question 48.]

	Yes	Q48
	No	Q49
	We do not have a custom-built MIS	Q49
	Don’t know	Q49

48. Who owns the copyright? Check all that apply.

	Our SFA or LEA	Q49
	The State	Q49
	The Vendor/Contractor	Q49
	Our Food Purchasing Coop	Q49
	Our Food Service Management Company	Q49
	Don’t know	Q49

49. Can your current school nutrition MIS be shared for no cost as an open source with other SFAs?

	Yes	Q50
	No	Q50
	Don’t know	Q50

Interoperability

We will now ask about interoperability, which refers to how your school nutrition MIS connects to other data systems.

50. Do you or your software vendor implement any interoperability standards within your current school nutrition MIS? By interoperability standards, we mean following third-party defined protocols to support efficient interactions between software/data systems. Check all that apply.

	Not part of any standards	Q51
	School Interoperability Framework (SIF)	Q51
	Ed-Fi Alliance	Q51
	Common Education Data Standards (CEDS)	Q51
	Other standards (please specify) ______________________________________________	Q51
	Part of some standards but do not know the name	Q51

51. To your knowledge, do you share data (send to or receive data from) in your school nutrition MIS with any of the following programs or agencies? Check all that apply.

	SNAP State or Local Agencies	Q52
	TANF State or Local Agencies	Q52
	Foster Care/Department of Children and Family Services	Q52
	State or local Medicaid agencies	Q52
	Other (please specify) ____________________________________________	Q52
	Do not share data____________________________________________	Q53

52. How do you share data (send to or receive data from) with the state agency that administers NSLP/SBP? Check all that apply.

	Manually key in data to the State system	Q53
	File import/export stored on a secure server	Q53
	File import/export using removable media such as flash drive, CD, DVD, etc.	Q53
	The state agency can log in to our school nutrition system	Q53
	We can log in to the state school nutrition system	Q53
	Other collaborative platforms such as SharePoint	Q53
	Other means (please specify) _____________________________________________	Q53

Architecture and Deployment

The next questions focus on how your school nutrition MIS is physically deployed and operated. In particular, FNS is interested in whether your data are stored locally or in the cloud.

53. Where are the data from your current school nutrition MIS stored? Check all that apply.

	Locally at each school/site	Q54
	At a central LEA/SFA location	Q54
	In the cloud, hosted by the vendor	Q54
	Other (please specify) _______________________________________________________	Q54
	Don’t know	Q54

54. What type of database management system does your school nutrition MIS use to store data? Check all that apply.

• Oracle Q55

• Microsoft SQL Q55

• MySQL Q55

• PostgresSQL Q55

• IMB DB2 Q55

• IBM Informix Q55

• SAP Sybase Q55

• Teradata Q55

• Non-relational database (e.g., MonoDB, Cassandra, HBase, Neo4j) Q55

• Other (please specify) _______________________________ Q55

• Don’t know Q55

Data Security

The next questions focus on your backup and data security systems and protocols. ”Protocols” refers to the set of rules and procedures that governs backup and security of your school nutrition MIS.

55. How long does your SFA retain data in your current school nutrition MIS? By retain we mean that the data are electronically available in your system without the need to restore the data from an archive. Check only one.

	Just the current school year	Q56
	1 year to less than 4 years	Q56
	4 years to less than 7 years	Q56
	7 years to less than 10 years	Q56
	Indefinitely	Q56
	Other time period (please specify)______________________________________________	Q56

56. Do you have any of the following security protocols to protect the data in your current school nutrition MIS, specifically those related to personally identifiable information? Check all that apply.

	Login requirements	END
	Data encryption	END
	Confidential data maintained in a secure environment	END
	User profiles with access to only specific data	END
	Virus protection	END
	Security penetration testing	END
	Virtual private network (VPN)	END
	Training for users to protect from phishing (i.e., email scams)	END
	Other (please specify) ________________________________________________________	END
	Other (please specify) ________________________________________________________	END
	Other (please specify) ________________________________________________________	END

Thank you for taking time to complete this survey. As we noted at the beginning, the information that you provided will be used only for the purposes of this study.

Please provide the following information about any staff members who have assisted you in completing this survey.

	Job Title		# of Years at SFA
1.
2.
3.
4.

If you have any questions about completion of this survey please contact Madeleine Levin at 202-774-1982 or [email protected]