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Each year, sponsors of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) report the number of students eligible for free and reduced price school meal benefits on their October claim for reimbursement. In addition, Sponsors report the average daily membership in each of their reporting sites on their annual NSLP Application. Applications and claims for reimbursement are reported to the Ohio Department of Education, Office for Safety, Health and Nutrition (formerly the Office of Child Nutrition Services) via the Claims, Reimbursement and Reporting System (CRRS).
The NSLP data is collected by reporting site. In most instances a reporting site is a school building, such as an elementary or middle school. However, if an elementary and middle school are located in the same building, and are served from one cafeteria, it may be designated as a single reporting site. The information for a reporting site is only available in the aggregated form. Separate buildings with separate cafeterias should be reported as individual buildings.
The Office for Safety, Health and Nutrition compiles the October data and posts it to the ftp site in early February of each year. This data is considered the most current until the next file is published. Revised data could be published after the initial posting. This data would be clearly marked as “revised” and should be considered the official MR81 data.
The MR81 data can be used as an indicator of poverty.
LOCATION:
The data can be found at the Ohio Department of Education ftp site at ftp://ftp.ode.state.oh.us/MR81/.
Click on the MR81 folder
Find the files with the most recent October date
The data is available in 3 formats:
1. Text file – this is a formatted text file. Sponsor totals can be found on this file;
2. Tab delimited file – this file can be easily imported into a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel;
3. Zip file – this file has been zipped to make it smaller. Once saved to a local drive it must be unzipped before it can be used.
DATA SOURCE:
The Office for Safety, Health and Nutrition compiles data reported by sponsors of the National School Lunch Program via their Claims, Reimbursement and Reporting System’s annual application and October claim for reimbursement.
Schools/reporting sites that use the USDA alternative meal counting method, Provision 2, report the ADM and the number of free and reduced price applicants when a base year is established. In succeeding years (until a new base year is established), the current ADM is reported and the number of free and reduced price applicants is taken from the base year claim. See the Data Definition – Provision Year for more information.
The October data file is named the MR81_Oct_(year of data) and posted to the Ohio Department of Education ftp site sometime in early February. The October file published in February is considered the most current until the next file is published. Revised data could be published after the initial posting. This data would be clearly marked as “revised” and should be considered the official MR81 data.
LIMITATIONS:
Following are some of the known limitations of the MR81 data.
Not all schools participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
Schools that participate in the NSLP but do not submit a claim for reimbursement in October will not be listed.
When a reporting site includes more than one school building, no record is kept of which buildings are included in the reporting site.
Sponsors/reporting sites that use the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) alternative meal counting method, Provision 2, report the average daily membership (ADM) and the number of free and reduced price applicants when a base year is established. In the succeeding years (until a new base year is established), only the current ADM is reported. The number of free and reduced price applicants is taken from the base year.
DATA DEFINITIONS:
County – county where the Sponsor is located. Source: Ohio Educational Directory System (OEDS).
SponsorIRN – the Internal Retrieval Number (IRN) assigned to an entity by the Ohio Department of Education. Source: OEDS.
SponsorName – entity that participates in the National School Lunch Program. Public school districts, non-public schools, residential child care institutions and some camps are eligible program Sponsors. Source: OEDS for the Sponsor Name and Claims, Reimbursement and Reporting System (CRRS) for participation information.
SponsorType – Sponsors of the National School Lunch Program are classified as one of four Sponsor types: public, non-public, residential child care institution and camp. Source: CRRS.
SrvBreakfast – an asterisk denotes that the reporting site participates in the School Breakfast Program. Source: CRRS.
SchoolName – name of school or reporting site participating in the National School Lunch Program. Source: OEDS.
Note: The NSLP data is collected by reporting site. In most instances a reporting site is a school building, such as an elementary or middle school. However, if an elementary and middle school are located in the same building, and are served from one cafeteria, it may be designated as a single reporting site. Separate buildings with separate cafeterias should be reported as individual reporting sites.
SiteIRN – the IRN assigned to a school/reporting site by the Ohio Department of Education. Source: OEDS.
KitchenType – each school/reporting site is assigned a kitchen type when the Sponsor submits the annual National School Lunch Program application. The three kitchen types are:
- Onsite – site prepares meals and serves meals at the site;
- Base – site prepares meals for another site within the Sponsor district, all base kitchens must have at least one satellite site;
- Satellite – serves meals prepared at a base kitchen (all satellites must be associated with a base kitchen).
BaseIRN – IRN of the base kitchen for this school/reporting site. If the kitchen type is Onsite, then the SiteIRN and the BaseIRN are the same.
ADMCount – the Average Daily Membership (ADM) for NSLP purposes is the highest number of students enrolled at that reporting site that have access to meals served under the National School Lunch Program.
FreeLunchApps – the highest number of student applicants approved for free meal benefits in October for that reporting site. An applicant is considered eligible for free meal benefits if the household income is at or less than 130% of the USDA established poverty guidelines or if the student receives food stamps or Ohio Works First (OWF) benefits. Source: CRRS.
RedLunchApps – the highest number of student applicants approved for reduced price meal benefits in October for that reporting site. An applicant is considered eligible for reduced price meal benefits if the household income is at or less than 180% of the USDA established poverty guidelines. Source: CRRS.
TotalFreeRedApps – sum of FreeLunchApps and RedLunchApps. Source: Calculated.
PctFreeAdm – percent student applicants approved for free meal benefits (FreeLunchApps) of ADM. Source: Calculated
PctFreeRedAdm – percent student applicants approved for reduced price meal benefits (RedLunchApps) of ADM. Source: CRRS.
ProvisionYear – if the school/reporting site is participating in the alternative meal counting method, Provision 2, the Provision 2 Base Year will be displayed. Numbers of free and reduced price applicants for this reporting site are taken from the base year, not the current year.
A school/reporting site participating in Provision 2 could have a PctFreeRedAdm greater than 100% because the ADM for a school/reporting site has declined. The number of free and reduced price applicants is taken from the Provision 2 Base Year and the ADM is from the current year. Source: CRRS.
Note: A guidance memorandum jointly signed by Eric M. Bost, Under Secretary of the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Eugene W. Hickok, Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education was issued on February 20, 2003. The memo provided guidance on the implementation of the new requirements of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) for schools that participate in the alternative meal counting methods, Provision 2 and Provision 3.
EXCERPTS FROM THE MEMO:
“The National School Lunch Act allows schools that offer students lunches at no charge, regardless of individual students’ economic status, to certify students as eligible for free and reduced price lunches once every four years and longer under certain conditions. These alternatives to the traditional requirements for annual certification, known as "Provision 2" and "Provision 3," reduce local paperwork and administrative burden. The school lunch regulations prohibit schools that make use of these alternatives from collecting eligibility data and certifying students on an annual basis for other purposes. This prohibition has raised issues about how such schools can obtain the data they need to disaggregate Title I assessment data, identify students as eligible for supplemental educational services, and determine which students receive priority for public school choice, all of which Title I requires be done annually.
We have determined that, for purposes of disaggregating assessment data and for identifying students as "economically disadvantaged" in implementing supplemental educational services and the priority for public school choice, school officials may deem all students in Provision 2 and 3 schools as "economically disadvantaged." In addition, when determining Title I eligibility and allocations for a Provision 2 or 3 school, LEA officials may assume that the school has the same percentage of students eligible for free and reduced price lunches as it had in the most recent year for which the school collected that information.”
The economic disadvantagement reports can be run at the Power Users Web site.
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