Section 148-1-II - STATE ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES1. PURPOSE: To delineate the specific responsibilities of the Bureau of Child and Family Services of the Department of Human Services for the administration of the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
2. STANDARDS: The Bureau of Child and Family Services shall be responsible for:
1. Developing application/reapplication forms.2. Annually determining an organization's preference for receiving donated commodities or cash-in-lieu of commodities.3. Providing organizations with application forms for initial participation in the C.A.C.F.P.4. Providing organizations with technical assistance in completing the applications.5. Providing participating organizations at the time of renewal, the choice of receiving advanced or reimbursed meal payments.6. Informing participating organizations of their right to appeal an adverse action.7. Approving each organization's annual meal service and administrative budgets.8. Determining that all meal procurements with food service management companies are in compliance with bid and contractual requirements.9. Reviewing submitted applications for completeness, reasonability and appropriate signatures of organization officials.10. Submitting properly completed applications to the Commissioner, Department of Human Services for final approval or renewed11. Annually providing each non-participating licensed/registered child day care center,, adult day care center and child day care home with information describing the availability of the program and* for each child day care home,, a list of participating sponsoring organizations.12. Annually developing a State plan of anticipated expenses for the administration of the C.A.C.F.P.13.Performing a "Supervisory Review" of each participating adult or child day care organization's compliance with meal requirements, family size, income, and Racial/Ethnic identity standards, financial management, non-discrimination policies, meal preparation procedures, food service management, food service equipment conditions and cleanliness in such a manner that: a. Independent centers, organizations operating centers, and organizations sponsoring child day care homes with 1 to 200 homes shall be reviewed at least once every three years. The Supervisory Review shall include visits to at least 15 percent of the adult or child day care and outside-school-hours care centers and 10 percent of the child day care homes operated and/or sponsored by the organization being reviewed.b. Sponsoring organizations with more than 200 homes shall be reviewed at least once every two years. Reviews of such organizations shall include visits to at least 5 percent of the first 1,000 homes and 2.5 percent of all homes in excess of 1,000.c. Any organization which operates and/or sponsors five or more day care facilities at the time of acceptance into the C. A. C. F. P. shall be reviewed within the first 90 days of C.A.C.F.P. participation.d. A pre approval visit is performed of each new organization prior to acceptance into the C.A.C.F.P.14. Publishing and transmitting to each participating organization the reimbursement rates and eligibility guidelines, based on family size and income levels, for the "Free", "Reduced-price" and "Paid" rate categories upon receipt from U.S.D.A. Food and Nutrition Services.15. Calculating payment to participating "non-pricing" organizations for meals served in adult day care, child day care and outside schools hours care centers on the basis of "claiming percentages." An organizations "claiming percentages" are to be determined by comparing the number of participants enrolled in each of the "Free", "Reduced-Price" and "Paid" categories to the total of these enrollments as of the last day of each organization's claiming month.16. Calculating payment to participating "pricing" organizations on the basis of "actual meal count by eligibility category."17. Maintaining records of all food service and administrative equipment purchased with C.A.C.F.P. funds administered by the Bureau* The records shall contain: a. Date and type of equipment purchased;b. Cost of the equipment (copy of invoices showing name of vendor, allowance for traded equipment, if any, and final purchase price);c. Location of the equipment (organization facility, etc.);d. Serial number, model number and brand name of each item purchased;e. The percent of C.A.C.F.P. funds to total cost; andf. The disposition of equipment.18. Providing an audit of the participating organization's program funds, payments and operation at least every 2 years in accordance with OMB Circulars and the Maine Uniform Accounting and Auditing practices for community agencies. (See Section V, Subsection B)19. Recovering, from C.A.C.F.P. participant organizations, overpayments discovered by Bureau C.A.C.F.P. staff during normal monitoring procedures,, Supervisory Reviews,, or the audits of an organization. This does not relieve the participant organizations of the responsibility of recovering overpayments which may have been paid to facilities which they operate or sponsor for C.A.C.F.P. purposes.20. Shall terminate an organization's participation in the C.A.C.F.P. by written notice, whenever it is determined by Department personnel that the organization is seriously deficient and has failed to comply with Federal or State rules governing the C.A.C.F.P. Serious deficiencies, which are grounds for disapproval of an application, or termination of an agreement, include, but are not limited to, any of the following: a. The submission of false information to the Department;b. Failure to return to the Department any advance payments which exceed the amount earned for serving reimbursable meals;c. Failure to maintain adequate records;d. Failure to adjust meal orders to conform to variations in the number of eligible participating children or adults;e. The claiming of program payments for meals not served to eligible participating children or adults;f. Service of a significant number of meals which did not include required quantities of all required meal components;g. Continued use of food service management companies that are in violation of health codes;h. Failure of a sponsoring organization to distribute payments to its facilities in accordance with its management plan;i. A history of administrative or financial mismanagement in any Federal child or adult nutrition program;j. Failure to maintain State or Federal licensing or certification;k. The claiming of program payments for meals served by a proprietary Title XIX or Title XX center during a calendar month in which less than 25 percent of eligible enrolled children or adults were Title XIX or Title XX beneficiaries.21. May require annually at least one month of menus and/or production reports from each organization to be reviewed as to the level of compliance with meal and supplement component and quantity requirements.22. Assure that each organization operating Adult Day Care Centers understands that C.A.C.F.P. payments shall not be claimed for, or share in the cost of, any meals funded under Part C of Title III of the Older Americans Act of 1965.23. Shall annually conduct a training conference for all participating organizations.10-148 C.M.R. ch. 1, § II