P-EBT Coordinators
In order to quickly identify points of contact, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) has named the Minnesota Automated Reporting Student System (MARSS) coordinator (public schools) and the School Nutrition Program Foodservice Contact (public and nonpublic schools) as coordinators for P-EBT.
This information is used by the Department of Human Services' (DHS) call center staff in limited situations when the parent needs to be referred back to the school or district. If you have not updated your school district preferences, you may change the predetermined contacts by clicking the link below. Also, if the contact person or information will change for the summer, please indicate the new information in the survey.
Read more about P-EBT coordinator responsibilities and change contact information.
Back to top
Roles and Responsibilities
In order to streamline requests to the correct organization, please review the P-EBT Roles and Responsibilities and address the issue to the correct organization. By knowing the roles of each entity and communicating with our audiences effectively, we can work together to greatly reduce the duplication of efforts. Thank you!
Back to top
Report Available to Check for Completeness
Did you know that there is a report you can check to determine what student data has been sent to DHS based on the Benefit Transfer Status?
Go to the Summary and Export of Students tab in the P-EBT portal. Scroll down until you see the table called Student Extract from P-EBT. On the far right, you will see an export option. On the far right column in the spreadsheet, you can view if the student’s information has been sent to DHS for processing. This information is also available individually in each student details screen.
What if data has not been sent yet? Investigate these issues:
- The student was entered in the portal after the last data deadline and before the next one. This can be identified by looking at the bottom right corner of the student details screen and identifying the create date and comparing to the data deadlines. View the Benefit Issuance Timeline for data submission deadlines.
- The student is at a school that didn't operate the National School Lunch Program prior to the pandemic.
- The student followed the school's learning model, and it was in person, so no benefit was generated.
- The student was not enrolled during the time period in which benefits are being calculated for.
- The student is not indicated as eligible for free or reduced-price meals in MARSS.
- The school did not verify or update their learning year model with MDE.
Another helpful report recently added is the Student Elected Distance Learner report. You can use this file to ensure the correct students were added as student elected distance learners (SEDL) and the dates in which they were in SEDL status.
Back to top
Green Check in P-EBT Portal – Is Everything Good to Go?
Green check: A green check is generated next to a student name when the student's data successfully loaded into the P-EBT portal. The green check does not necessarily mean that the student will generate a benefit for the same six reasons described above.
Reminder of the other indicator signs and steps to take:
Yellow warning sign: The mailing address could not be validated with the U.S. Postal Service. P-EBT card delivery will be attempted for the listed address, but schools may want to check for errors to prevent a delay in card delivery. Oftentimes the address does not validate due to abbreviations or differences in word order, such as "state highway" versus "MN Highway." Although it is not necessary, if you would like to investigate address errors, use the U.S. Postal Service address validation website.
Red X: Student information is missing or incorrect. Benefits will not be issued until the error is corrected. For public schools, this usually means the student data does not match MARSS.
Back to top
DHS Call Center Routing Parents to School
In instances described above where DHS call center staff identify that data has not been sent to DHS for probable reasons #4 or #5, DHS call center staff will direct parents to contact the P-EBT coordinators at the school district for assistance. As additional DHS call center staff receive training and build experience, they may send students to your district for any reason mentioned above.
Thank you for helping us research the root causes as we all work together to provide assistance to households. Please reach out to pebt.mde@state.mn.us with any concerns.
Back to top
Reminder of Processing Timelines
Data is sent from MDE to DHS only once per month, the week following the data deadline. The student benefit transfer status is updated approximately one week after the data deadline. It takes approximately 4-5 weeks from the data deadline to the point where households will begin receiving cards, due to use of a third party vendor that needs to create and send the physical cards. Lost cards or those that need to be canceled and sent to a new household or address will add an additional 1-2 weeks on top of that timeframe for processing.
Back to top
P-EBT May 2021 Update for Schools Webinar – Rescheduled
In order to provide the most timely updates based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) recent release of summer P-EBT guidance and early learning questions received, the P-EBT program updates webinar originally scheduled for Thursday, May 13, has been rescheduled to Tuesday, May 25, from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
If you already registered for the original session, you do not need to register a second time. Register for the P-EBT program updates webinar on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 8:30-9:45 a.m. Note that the registration form will not reflect the updated webinar date, but the calendar invite that is sent after registration is correct. Program updates will be provided, followed by a question and answer session. If we are unable to answer your specific questions during the webinar, please email us after the session.
Back to top
Summer Benefits
Summer benefits will be discussed at the May 25, 2021, webinar and in future bulletin messages after the webinar. If you are unable to attend the webinar live, register regardless in order to receive the slides after the webinar. Refer to the P-EBT website for the slides and webinar recording approximately 7-10 days after the live webinar. After navigating to the website, select Ctrl and F5 to refresh the cached version of the website.
Back to top
P-EBT Reimbursement for Staff Time
USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) regional offices awarded a Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 P-EBT Local Administrative Costs fund to Child Nutrition State agencies so that they may reimburse schools for costs incurred for the administration of the P-EBT program. The school district will be a sub-recipient of these funds and they will be disbursed as a reimbursement of allowable costs.
Since P-EBT is new work and not previously budgeted for at the district level, these funds would not be supplanting but rather supplementing existing budgets. Please ask your business manager/Cyber-Linked Interactive Child Nutrition System (CLiCS) sponsor authority contact to watch for an email announcement with a link to a survey on the MDE P-EBT webpage to express your intent to participate and to provide assurances and estimated budgets. This same survey platform will be used to submit the final report for which reimbursement will be based.
Contact Us | Unsubscribe | P-EBT Data Portal Website
|
