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SIS 2000+ Food Services

Sec. 7, Eligibility / Eligibility Applications 
 

The Applications module processes and stores Free/Reduced Eligibility Applications. Student and student patron free/reduced eligibility status is calculated by comparing income, household size and Federal Child Nutrition Income Guidelines. Applications are household based -- each student present on the household application is assigned the pay type generated by the household application. A student pay-type may be other than the application pay type. An application may contain students eligible due to household income, and students eligible due to Categorical Approval or Direct Certification.

Fig. 1 - Application, read-only mode
 

The Applicant is not automatically included in household size and may or may not be a household member. All applicants are considered to be Student Contacts (because that individual is acting in a legal capacity on behalf of the child). Once an applicant is present on an application, that applicant is also present in Student Contacts as a contact for all students on the application (if the preference value = 'Yes'. A relationship between the students and this contact may be set as Contact/FS Applicant at the user's option. See Sec. 3.2.1 Preference Editor, Contact Relationship. Also see Sec. 7e, The Applicant).

Student incomes are included in total household income. Use the horizontal scroll bar to display Income and Pay Period text fields. Income for all household members may be reported as hourly, weekly, twice-weekly, bimonthly, monthly and yearly. If all household incomes are reported using the same types of pay-periods, the calculated total household income displays using that pay period. If household income is reported using multiple types of pay periods (hourly, monthly etc.), then the total household income is displayed converted to a monthly pay period.

The application controls the Student Account Status (Sec. 6a). All applications are date-driven. Each application has effective and expire dates that set coverage for that pay-type for all students on the application. A change in household income or size that results in a change in pay-type status requires a replacement application with new effective and expire dates for the new pay-type.

All applications are retained. Prior to each new school year, all applications are archived. Applications that are in effect at the end of the school year are duplicated and marked as Temporary for continuing students. The Temporary status of 'new year carry-over' applications is in effect as set by a user-defined expire date and approval status (Temporary 10 days, 30 days, etc.). Pending Expiration Letters and Report are available to help with the re-application process. If a household has not re-applied by the expiration date, those students will not have a current account status record after that date (Sec. 6a). This is handled in one of two ways:

1. Cafeteria Preference EXPIRED ACCOUNTS = ALERT

The Cafeteria module presents an alert when a student is encountered who does not have a current status record - you have the option to record the meal using Paid status.
2. Cafeteria Preference EXPIRED ACCOUNTS = INSERT

The Cafeteria module automatically inserts a 'Paid' status record into the student's Account as of the date of service.

7.1 Application Controls
An Application consists of four sections -

1. Application Information (the top portion of the screen)
2. The Application (which contains the Household Students, the Applicant, the Household Members and the Application Notes/Memos tabs)
3. Application Calculation Results (bottom portion of screen)
4. Application Control Buttons (bottom portion of the screen). Each part of the Application screen also has unique command buttons and text boxes. The following is a brief outline of control functions for each section of the application. Please refer to sections (Sec. 7a through 7j) for detailed information.

7.1.1 Application Information


Fig. 2 - Application Information
 

Application Series - The Application Series is generated by the Application ID number used for the original application.  Subsequent generations of this application (New Year Temporary, Re-Applies, Verification Response) are linked to the original application and part of the series.

Application - The position of this application within the Application Series.
 
Type - Original Application, New Year Temporary, Re-Apply, Verification Response

Status -  Archived, Active, Incomplete
Archived is assigned during the New Year procedure. Archived applications may be retained indefinitely, or may be deleted as per user-defined date parameters.
Active or Incomplete Status - produced by calculating the application. Active Status indicates all application requirements have been met and the application is in effect (which includes Denied-Income Over Limit applications).

Incomplete Status is assigned when one or more of the following is missing from the application:
• Applicant's signature
• Applicant's social security number
• if the Applicant is also a household member (the household member Category is set to Applicant), then the Applicant's social security number or 'None' must be present in the SS Number text field on the Household Members page.
• Program Name and/or Program Number
1.  If Program = <Income elig>, this indicates a student's eligibility is based upon household income. Program Number is not applicable.
2. If Program = Food Stamps, AFDC, or FDPIR, a Program Number is required. An internal flag is also set that marks this application as containing Categorically Approved students for report and verification purposes.
3. If Program = Direct Cert, Program number is not required.

An application may contain students with Programs set as Income eligible (Program number field remains empty) and students with Food Stamp, AFDC and FDPIR Program Names and Numbers. The Approval Status for mixed applications is Split.
• No Income Reported

Incomplete Applications display the actual Pay type (calculation results) that would have been assigned to the students, but the Application Approval defaults to Denied--Incomplete Application, and Student Pay-types default to Paid. Application Approval may be edited. For example, you may wish to change the Application Approval from Denied-Incomplete to Approved Temporary-30 days. If the Application Approval status is overridden, student pay types will change from Paid to the pay type supported by the approved application. The Application Status remains Incomplete until missing information is supplied and the application is re-calculated.
 
App. Date -  Application processing date. Defaults to today's date but may be overwritten.

For Period -  Inclusive effective and expire dates for benefits generated by this application. The expiration date defaults to 06/30/year, which is the last day of the food service year.
Each time a student is added to the application, it is verified that the student is not present on another application within this date range. To this end, the For Period dates are locked when the Add (Household Student) button is selected.

Application Dates (App. Date, Effective Date and Expire Date) default to the previous dates used during the current session.

Signature - Check to indicate that the applicant's signature is on the application. Additional user-defined check boxes may be present.
 

7.1.2 Application Control Buttons
 

Fig. 3
 

Letters -
Use this button to open Eligibility Letters & Labels and print the appropriate letter for this application (Increase, Decrease, No Change, Termination)

Find -
Use the Find button to locate a specific application. Find locates an application by student, application number or by applicant. The Find button is enabled when the Applications module in read-only mode.

List -
Displays summarized data for this application series.

Edit -
Use the Edit button to place an existing application into edit mode. The Edit button is not enabled when the Applications module is in read-only mode and an application has not been loaded. Edit remains enabled once an application has been loaded.

New -
Use the New button to add a new application form. The New button is enabled only when the Applications module is in read-only mode.

ReApply -
Initiates the Re-Apply process using the application currently in effect. Re-Apply is used when a household's size or income has changed and the current application is no longer accurate. The current application is replicated and then expired. The duplicate application is then edited to include current household information, new application number, and new effective and expire dates (see Sec. 7i).

Calculate -
The Calculate button enables when a change is made to an application that could affect the Pay type or Approval status (the Save button disables). Calculate compares household size, income and Child Nutrition Guidelines and evaluates all required application data (see Sec. 7.1.1). Calculation assigns an Application Approval status of Approved, Denied-Incomplete or Denied-Income Over Limit. Calculate must be used to evaluate the application before the application may be saved.

Undo -
Use the Undo button to revert this application back to the last saved version. Application remains in edit mode. The Undo button is enabled only when the application is in edit mode and changes have been made to the application.

Done -
Exits Edit mode

Save -
Use the Save button to record data in the current application. The application remains displayed in read-only mode after saving. The Save button is enabled only when the application is in edit mode, changes have been made to the application and Calculate has been performed. Save initiates an evaluation of historical meal service records that fall within the effective date range of this application for each student present on the application. If the pay type for any of these meal records is other than the pay type of the current application, the meal record pay types are corrected and an Edit Log is created in Applications Notes/Memos and Accounts, Account Status page (per student).

Save also initiates an evaluation of any existing applications for all students present on the current application and examines the Effective and Expire dates for possible conflicts. If any students are present on a different application with an effective date range which conflicts with the effective date range of the current application the Save will not be permitted. The ID number, effective date range of the conflicting application and student names are provided.

Quit -
Use the Quit button to exit the Applications module.
 

An Application Series and the VCR buttons -
An Application Series consists of the Original Application, plus subsequent applications generated by the original application (New Year Temporary, Re-Applies and Verification).  These applications are 'linked' within the container of the series.  When Find is used to retrieve an Application, the entire series is retrieved.  The Active Application and it's position in the series are displayed (Fig. 4), but all applications in the series may be viewed by using the VCR buttons to move through the series.


Fig. 4 - Application Series and position of the selected Application within the series
 
 
An Application Series and the List button -

Click on the List button to display summarized data for this series. The selected application is shown in red.  The display may be used as a navigation tool - select (click on or use the up/down arrows) an application, then click on the Select button.


Fig. 5 - List Application Series
 

7.1.3 Application Calculation Results -- text boxes
 

Fig. 6
 

Income -
Total Household income.

Pay Period -
The pay period used to calculate total household income. If all income is reported using the same pay period (hourly, for example), then the total household income is calculated using that pay period and displays as a total household hourly figure. If different pay periods are used within the household (hourly, bi-monthly, yearly etc.), then incomes are converted to a monthly household income figure, and the Pay Period used for calculation displays as Monthly.

HH Size -
Total household size, which is Household Students plus Household Members. The Applicant is not included unless specifically added as a household member.

Income Elig -
The Income Eligibility status of the application based upon the results of calculating income, household size and income tables.

Approval -
The approval status of the application

Approved
Temporary - 30 Days
Temporary - 60 Days
Temporary - 90 Days
Approved Temporary
Denied - Income Over Limit
Denied - No Income Reported
Denied - Missing Signature
Denied - Missing SSN
Denied - Missing Program number
Denied - Incomplete
New Year Temporary
 
App Type -
Split, Income-based, Categorical

Pay type -
The actual pay type assigned by the application as calculated by comparing household income, household size, income guidelines, and whether or not application information requirements have been met. Pay type may free, reduced or paid. Incomplete applications are assigned the pay type Paid.
 
 

7.1.4 The Application -- Household Students page -- command buttons
 
Add -
Use the Add button to add new students to the application. The Add button is enabled when the application is in edit mode. When Add is selected, the Add Student (Application) utility runs and allows you to locate, select and insert students into the application.

Delete -
Use the Delete button to remove a student from an application. The Delete button is enabled when the application is in edit mode. Select the student by clicking anywhere within that row, then select Delete. A confirmation prompt will request a 'Yes' or 'No' response to delete this student.
 
 

7.1.5 The Application -- Applicant page -- command buttons
 
Change Applicant -
The Change Applicant button is used to remove the current applicant from the application and insert a different applicant. Change Applicant runs the Select Applicant utility which displays all Student Contacts for all students listed on the application. The new Contact/Applicant may be selected from among these contacts, or a new Contact/Applicant may be added. If a new Student Contact is added, you have the option of identifying this new contact as a food services applicant, or the contact may be inserted into Student Contacts without a relationship being defined.

Edit this Applicant -
Allows the demographics for the current applicant to be edited.
 
 

7.1.6 The Application -- Household Members page -- command buttons
 
Add Applicant -
The Add Applicant button inserts the Applicant as a household member.

Add -
The Add button places the Household Members grid into edit mode. Use Add for each household member to be added to the application. Information such as income, source, category (applicant, child, adult etc.) and name must be completed for each household member. Household members are in addition to household students.

Delete -
Use the Delete button to remove a household member from the application. The Delete button is enabled when the application is in edit mode. Select the household member by clicking anywhere within that row, then select Delete. A confirmation prompt will request a 'Yes' or 'No' response to delete this person from the application.
 
 

7.1.7 The Application -- Notes / Memos page -- text boxes
 
Application Notes: -
Allows the user to record optional notes related to the application in general. This text box is available for insertion into Eligibility Letters.

Edit History: -
The number of times this application has been altered.

Edit Log
A system record created each time a change is made to an application. This record is automatic and read-only. If a change to an application results in a change to student pay types and historical meal service records are affected, then a corresponding audit log is created in each student's Account (Status page). The audit log contains 'Changes to Application' and 'Explanation of Changes' (user notes).
 

7.2.1 File menu
The File menu (Fig. 7) contains Applications module Preferences (see Sec. 3) and Income Guidelines (see Sec. 7a).


Fig. 7 - File menu
 

Change Application module preferences -
You may change the values for Preferences that display in Red.
 

1. Click on the preference to select (example - 'Explain Edits' preference in Fig. 8). A description for this preference displays in the text box at the bottom of the Editor.
2. Click on the Value field to display the values for this preference.
3. Select the desired value.
4. Close the Preferences Editor when finished.


Fig. 8 - Application module preferences
 
 

7.2.2 Help menu
Contains version information for the Applications module.
 

7.2.3 Application menu
Deletes the current application. Error trapping will not allow this application to be deleted if meal records have been recorded.


Fig. 9 - Application menu
 
 
7.2.4 Utilities Menu
 The Applications Utilities menu contains tools specific to SIS 2000+ releases. The contents of the Utilities menu changes, based upon Release requirements. The menu shown below is present in the 48a Release.  Instructions for these utilities are included with version Release Notes.


Fig. 10 - Utilities menu