In a Request for Information (RFI) released Friday, the California Department of Education (CDE) seeks information from respondents for a project that could migrate the agency’s school nutrition program (SNP) process of households applying for meals with school food authorities (SFA) entirely online. The program serves more than 6 million students and currently, SFAs collect applications partially via paper – a process that “takes CDE several weeks per year examining tens of thousands of paper applications” to verify completeness and eligibility for free or reduced meals, according to the RFI; and errors “may require the SFA to return meal reimbursement.” Among the takeaways:
• With the RFI, CDE wants to gauge interest from tech companies and learn if a viable solution already exists for a “statewide online system that would receive SNP meal applications and determine eligibility more efficiently and accurately at the SFA level” – and potentially “streamline” CDE-level monitoring. The existing manual process is error-prone and time-consuming for SFA and CDE staff, the RFI says, “requiring additional resources to make corrections and to process fiscal action for recovery of improperly reimbursed funds.” The proposed solution would automate the SNP meal application process and offer “numerous benefits” including the ability to determine eligibility electronically – “eliminating mathematical miscalculation and other instances of human error” – while preserving documentation in a central, accessible but secure location and expediting application review.
• CDE envisions a California Online Meal Application (Cal-OMA) and offers an overview of functions in the RFI. Cal-OMA, it said, should be hosted on a third-party website and replace the manual certification and BI process that SFAs around the state currently use. Cal-OMA “will ensure that student meal applications are filled out with all required information included and certified automatically,” according to the RFI; and it will also house information CDE can use during the review process, “which will drastically reduce review time.”
Anticipated business outcomes include managing a maximum workload of 4 million potential concurrent users while maintaining performance objectives; collecting all certification and benefit issuance (BI) information via a web-based system; eliminating all errors associated with manual applications; making solution updates instantly available to all users; providing parents of eligible children and SFAs access to their historical data during the yearly certification and BI process; and sending meal applications by email.
• Cal-OMA’s conceptual design should let users access and complete certification and BI tasks with “an integrated-based system that is accessible from their existing environments.” It should provide a “web-based online option and a mobile environment” for households that are applying; and offer CDE and SFAs a “web-based workspace” for the reviewing agencies to conduct those related activities, and for record management. CDE manages the records generated during application review in hard copy and electronic formats, preserving them at least three years. SFAs, too, keep relevant documentation for at least three years after the fiscal year to which they pertain. The system will also have 29 proposed functional requirements, including online and smartphone submission of meal applications in 50 languages; letting benefits follow student transfers; real-time updates; automated result reporting; CDE access via a review portal; and the use of algorithms to overcome nicknames, multi-part family names and misspellings, and transposed or mis-typed months, days or years. The system must meet all state security requirements and must comply with rights spelled out in the California Consumer Privacy Act. Additionally, CDE-standard tech must be used for custom or modified off-the-shelf solutions that the agency will support, maintain or host, as the agency doesn’t have the infrastructure or trained staff to support tech outside its app-dev standards; and “cannot support the website, applications, and services developed in the proposed technologies.”
• The contract’s estimated value and term are not stated. Questions on the RFI are due by 4 p.m. Aug. 27 and CDE responses will come by 4 p.m. Sept. 10. Responses to the RFI are due by 4 p.m. Sept. 18. Participation is not mandatory to participate in any future “Request For Purchase” that CDE may issue on the proposed project.
