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Agency of Education outlines how Vermont counts economically disadvantaged students and why direct certification drives most counts
Summary
Agency of Education staff told the Ways & Means Committee that about 93% of students identified as low income for long-term weighted ADM are counted via direct certification from state program lists; the household income (Universal Income Declaration) form accounts for about 5% and serves as a backup for edge cases and independent schools.
Leslie Krueger, state director of child nutrition programs at the Agency of Education (AOE), told the Ways & Means Committee that the AOE’s methodology for identifying students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds relies primarily on direct certification. Krueger said the state’s process draws on multiple data sources—3SquaresVT (SNAP), Reach Up, Medicaid (filtered to federal eligibility bands for free and reduced-price meals), migrant and homeless lists, and Head Start—and matches those lists monthly to local enrollment records so local determining officials can certify eligibility for school-year counts.
Krueger said AOE’s October 1 data collection (the date used for long-term weighted average daily membership) captures cumulative direct-certifications and that because direct-cert status is cumulative across a school year, any federal policy changes…
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