Eligibility Determination for RCCIs with Non-Day Students
An RCCI with non-day students must certify students for meal benefits using the following guidance and documentation to demonstrate eligibility.
Eligibility Determination
- Students placed in an RCCI are eligible for free meals because while residing at the RCCI, they do not earn, receive, or retain money and most students are wards of the court and placed at the facility. Due to these factors, the WI DPI School Nutrition Team (SNT) will accept an overarching statement of eligibility in place of individual benefit documentation.
- The overarching statement must be kept on file and indicate why students qualify for free meals such as, "All student residents placed at this facility do not receive regular earnings from employment while in our care."
Benefit Issuance List
- An RCCI with non-day students have frequent, often daily fluctuations of admitted students. Because of this, it is challenging to maintain an accurate Benefit Issuance (BI) list. Due to these factors, the WI DPI School Nutrition Team (SNT) will accept a current attendance record in place of a BI list.
Student Income
- If a student is receiving income from trust funds, social security benefits, military allotments, or regular earnings from employment, an individual meal application must be on file.
- The RCCI may complete a meal application on behalf of the student if necessary. The RCCI designated official may sign the F/R meal application as the adult household member for the student.
- Note: Payments from any source received by an RCCI on a child’s behalf are not considered income to the child.
Students Receiving Meals Offsite
- If a student is residing at an RCCI but attending and receiving meals at an offsite school participating in USDA Child Nutrition Programs, the attending school’s designated official may complete an application on the student’s behalf based on income information known to the official.
Eligibility Determination for RCCIs with Day Students
An RCCI with day students must certify students for meal benefits using the following guidance and documentation to demonstrate eligibility.
Pricing RCCIs
- If the RCCI is charging day students for meals (pricing), they must distribute household applications, conduct DC, and maintain a BI list for all day students. If the household of a day student does not return a F/R meal application and the student cannot be directly certified, the student is not eligible for free meals and must be claimed in the paid category on the monthly reimbursement claim.
- The following types of child income should be reported on the F/R application.
- Trust funds
- Social security death benefits or military allotments
- Regular earnings from employment
- RCCIs with day students, using the pricing option, are required to conduct a full enrollment DC run a minimum of three times per year:
- First Run at or near the beginning of the school year (July – August).
- Second Run three months after the first run (October – December).
- Third Run six months after the first run (January – March).
- An RCCI is encouraged to run DC when new students enroll at the RCCI.
Non-Pricing RCCIs
- If the RCCI has day students but does not charge for meals and claims every student in the paid category, they do not need to obtain eligibility documentation such as meal applications and DC. However, obtaining eligibility documentation may allow for students to be claimed in the free or reduced-price category resulting in more reimbursement.
- If an RCCI has temporary day students enrolled in a public or charter school, the RCCI may claim meals based on the F/R price eligibility supplied by that school or district.
Verification
- RCCIs that do not determine eligibility through free and reduced-price applications are exempt from the verification requirement. However, the Verification Collection Report (VCR) must still be submitted.
- RCCIs who determine eligibility through free and reduced-price applications must annually complete the verification process. The verification pool should include all F/R meal applications on file as of October 1. The verification process must be completed by November 15. Instructions for completing the verification process are found in the Verification Section of the School Nutrition Website.
- The VCR is required to be submitted by all RCCIs by February 1 each year.