OMB Number: 0584-0530 Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX |
Dear <<SFA CONTACT NAME>>,
By now, you should have received notice from your State’s Child Nutrition Office that <<SFA NAME>> was randomly selected to participate in the fourth Access, Participation, Eligibility and Certification Study (APEC IV). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has contracted with Westat to conduct APEC IV. Your assistance is critical to ensure that the study includes the experiences of all kinds of SFAs and schools, which will inform improvements to the NSLP and SBP.
APEC IV is a research study, not an audit of any type. All information collected will be kept private to the extent required by law and will not affect meal reimbursements or meal program benefits for any participating State agency, SFA, school, or households. The attached FAQ document provides more details about the study and data collection. You can also visit the study’s website at <www.xxx.org> for more information.
We have compiled a list of all schools in your district and will randomly select some of them to participate in the study. To help us select the schools, we request that your office review our list to confirm your schools’ information or provide corrections to us. You can access the list by visiting the study’s secure web portal at the link below.
To assist you, we are attaching a guide that provides instructions on (a) how to access the web portal, (b) how to review your data, and (c) how to submit corrections.
APEC IV WEB PORTAL: <<URL>> YOUR SFA PIN: <<NUMBER>>
You may go to the web portal and begin reviewing this information at any time. If we do not hear from you, an APEC IV study team member will contact you in 1-2 weeks to ensure that you received this request, answer any questions you may have, and provide assistance.
If you have any questions, please contact the study team at << EMAIL ADDRESS>> or << TOLL-FREE NUMBER>>. You may also visit the study’s website at <URL> for more information.
Thank you in advance for your help and cooperation.
Sincerely,
<APEC IV RESEARCH TEAM>
Attachments:
024. APEC IV FAQ (for States, SFAs and Schools);
006. SFA School Data Verification Reference Guide
This information is being
collected to provide the Food and Nutrition Service with key
information on the annual error rates and improper payments for the
school meal programs. This is a voluntary collection and FNS will
use the information to examine school meal error rates and inform
future APEC studies. This collection requests personally
identifiable information under the Privacy Act of 1974. According to
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of
information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid
OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-0530. The
time required to complete this information collection is estimated
to average .0501 hours (3 minutes) per response, including the time
to review the attached instructions and provide school data
information via the study’s web portal. Send comments
regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this
collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this
burden, to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition
Service, Office of Policy Support, 1320 Braddock Place, 5th Floor,
Alexandria, VA 22306 ATTN: PRA (0584-0530). Do not return the
completed form to this address.
File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
Author | Megan Collins |
File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
File Created | 2022-10-03 |