State, Local, and Tribal Government - State Child Nutrition Agency, SFA, and Schools

APPENDIX O8. SFA SCHOOL SAMPLE NOTIFICATION E-LETTER

NOTE TO REVIEWER:

This appendix includes the following:

1. SFA School Sample Notification E-Letter

   • Estimated burden to the SFA to review the letter is 5 minutes

2. Template Notification Letter from SFA to Sampled Schools (attachment to letter)

   • This is a sample letter that the SFA Director may or may not choose to use to notify schools

   • This is requested, but not required

   • Whether or not the SFA notifies the schools, the Research Team will notify the schools (see Appendix O9)

   • Estimated burden for SFA to review/edit/send letter is 10 minutes

The Total Burden to SFA for Appendix O8 is 15 minutes.

The burden to the School to read the notification letter (#b above) from SFA (if used) is 5 minutes

OMB Number: 0584-0530

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Dear <<SFA CONTACT NAME>>,

With your help, we have successfully created the list of sampled schools for <<SFA NAME>>. These are the schools that are selected for the study:

<<SCHOOL NAME>> in <<SCHOOL CITY>>

<<SCHOOL NAME>> in <<SCHOOL CITY>>

<<SCHOOL NAME>> in <<SCHOOL CITY>>

We ask that you review these materials and contact the sampled schools to inform them that they have been selected into the study sample, explain why their participation in the study is important, and to encourage their participation. Attached you will find a template letter you can use to notify your sampled school(s). Please email us when you have notified the schools.

In addition, we are asking for your help in providing us with contact information for two people at each school so that we may contact the school in the future. Typically this is: 1) the person who will be notified about the study (usually the school principal) and 2) the person who will be the primary point of contact for our data collection activities (usually the person who handles the food service operations at the school). Please provide the following contact information for two people for each school listed above:

• Full name

• Title

• Phone Number

• E-Mail Address

We look forward to your email confirming notification of your schools and providing contact information for the two people at each school. Please feel free to contact us at 1-855-820-6138 or [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you in advance for your help and cooperation.

Sincerely,

<NAME AND TITLE OF SENDER>

Attachments: Template Notification Letter from SFA to Sampled Schools

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 0584-0530. The time required for the SFA Director to complete this information collection is estimated to average 15 minutes per response, including the time to review the letter and notify schools.

Attachment: Template Notification Letter from SFA to Sampled Schools

OMB Number: 0584-0530

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Dear <<CONTACT NAME>>:

This letter/email is to notify you that your school was randomly selected to be part of the third Access, Participation, Eligibility and Certification Study Series (APEC III). The study is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). It is conducted by Westat, a research company located in Rockville, Maryland. APEC III will include a nationally representative sample of school districts, schools and student households within those sampled schools.

APEC III Study is federally mandated through the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act (IPERIA) of 2012. The Study will examine participation, eligibility, and certification of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) to estimate amounts and sources of erroneous reimbursements due to certification, meal counting, and claiming errors.

Our district’s participation, along with hundreds of other school districts nationwide, will help maximize the efficiency of meal tracking and reporting within the program to help ensure the integrity, refinement, and continuity of both the NSLP and the SBP.

The data collection activities at the school are limited and in most instances can be completed in one day. Data collection at the school will have no direct involvement with students or collect any information about individual students. The data collection will occur in School Year 2017-18. The following is a list of data collection activities at your school:

1. School meal observation - Data collectors will observe breakfast and lunch meals. They will observe and record the items on the tray of a random sample of students, and if the cashier recorded the tray as a reimbursable meal. They will not collect any data about individual students.

2. Cafeteria manager interview. For approximately 10% of randomly selected schools, an interview with the cafeteria manager will be conducted to gather qualitative information about meal claiming procedures and process. Your cafeteria manager may or may not be selected.

3. Meal Counts. Data collectors will request and abstract meal counts submitted by the school to the SFA.

If your school is a non-CEP:

4. Household Survey. A survey will be conducted with a sample of parents/guardians of students that applied for meal benefits. Westat will contact the sampled households separately to invite them to participate. Participation is voluntary and the survey will take place in the household of the parent/guardian. [Note that the household survey component of APEC III is entitled National School Meals Study].

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 0584-0530. The time required for schools to complete this information collection is estimated to average 5 minutes per response, including the time to review the letter.

In a few months, Westat will contact you and provide further information about what is involved with your participation in this study. In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact Westat at 1-855-820-6138 or [email protected]. Also, feel free to contact me as well.

Your assistance is critical to ensure a representative sample, scientifically valid findings, and improvements to the NSLP and SBP.

Thank you in advance for your help and cooperation.

Sincerely,

<NAME AND TITLE OF SENDER>

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