This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
How can errors in school meal programs be reduced?
Estimating payment errors in the National School Meal Programs with Access, Participation, Eligibility, and Certification (APEC)
Challenge
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) provide critical nutrition to school children. On an average school day in 2019, the NSLP served lunches to 29 million children, most of whom qualified to receive the meals for free or at a reduced price.
Inherent in the administration of a large national program is the potential for program and payment errors. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) commissioned 3 studies, known as Access, Participation, Eligibility, and Certification (APEC), to obtain national estimates of program and payment errors.
Westat will conduct the 4th study, APEC IV, to calculate updated national estimates of errors for the 2023-24 school year. Westat previously conducted APEC III and collaborated on APEC II.
Solution
APEC IV will build on the previous APEC studies, and examine how characteristics of students, schools, and school food authorities affect program and payment errors. The study also includes several enhancements:
- Evaluate whether USDA’s online application prototype generates a more accurate and complete accounting of household size and income
- Examine the mode effect of in-person vs. telephone interviews on the household survey
- Test the use of cameras to capture data on the components of students’ meal trays
This study will use computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), and computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) software across a wide variety of platforms (smartphone, tablet, desktop) during data collection.
Results
The results of the first 3 APEC studies led FNS to create strategies for better fiscal management and streamlined implementation of the program, and to ensure that benefits are received by those in need.
APEC IV will determine if reforms have reduced errors and if the current rates meet the federal targets. It will produce policy and procedural recommendations to reduce errors.
Learn more:
Third Access, Participation, Eligibility, And Certification Study (APEC-III), School Year 2017-18 | Food and Nutrition Service
Focus Areas
Food and Nutrition Social ServicesCapabilities
Advanced Technologies Analysis and Modeling Blaise Data Collection Data Collection Modes Statistical MethodsSenior Expert Contact
Alice Ann Gola
Senior Research Associate
-
Issue Brief
Young Children’s Consumption of 100% Fruit Juice by Racial-Ethnic Characteristics of Their MothersMarch 2023
Congress authorized the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) as a pilot program in 1972 and made WIC permanent in 1974.…
-
Perspective
CDISC Conformance and Compliance: So Many Resources, So Little Time!February 2023
Implementing the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards required for data management, programming, documentation, and eCTD data submission can be challenging for many reasons…
-
Expert Interview
How Will the Marine Corps Integrate Men and Women at Recruit Training?January 2023
Marine Corps recruit training is every bit as intense as it looks. Each morning starts hours before sunrise with a chorus of screaming drill instructors…