2013-2014 NSLP Data Released
February 11, 2014
The PDE Bureau of Food and Nutrition has just released the raw National School Lunch Data that was submitted by schools to PDE in October 2013. The spreadsheet is attached and will be posted soon to the PA E-rate website under the Discount Calculations tab or directly at: http://www.e-ratepaorg.local/discount_calc.htm. This data, although from the 2013 school year, is what schools and libraries will use to calculate their E-rate discounts for E-rate Funding Year 2014 (which begins July 1, 2014).
Unlike previous years, the data is listed in alphabetical order (not county order). Also, the schools in blue are public schools; the schools in pink are non-public schools.
On a separate tab, I provided an example of one district’s shared E-rate discount calculations as well as a library branch discount calculation. When you file the Form 471 online, however, Block 4 automatically does these calculations for you.
A few important notes:
1) When the SLD’s PIA staff reviews your applications, particularly your Block 4 discount calculations, they use this data. Therefore you may want to double check that the data that you submit in your E-rate application matches the data listed on this spreadsheet. Certainly, if you have other data, you can use it (such as from an income survey or more recent NSLP data), but you should expect a call from the PIA staff requesting thorough documentation as to why the figures do not match what was submitted to PDE.
2) This spreadsheet only contains buildings that have students participating in the NSLP program. Your individual Form 471, Block 4’s should contain all of the buildings that are receiving E-rate discounted services, including your non-instructional facilities (NIFs), such as bus barns, administration buildings, etc. And in order to list these buildings on the Block 4, they must have an E-rate entity number assigned to them. If they don’t, call the SLD at 888-203-8100 and obtain entity numbers for these NIFs. Then in Block 4, you will list that they have 0 students enrolled, and 0 students eligible for NSLP. The discount for these buildings will be the district’s shared E-rate discount.
3) Don’t forget that the easiest way to complete a Block 4 is to use the “Copy Block 4” feature from a previous 471. If you use this feature, don’t forget to update the enrollment and NSLP data and make sure the entities receiving the service described in Block 5 are all listed in that particular Block 4 worksheet. If you have only a few buildings that are receiving a particular service, add a separate Block 4 worksheet only listing those entities (and then refer to that specific worksheet in Item 23J of the Block 5).
4) The information related to Low Income Enrollment from the PDE PIMS System may not be the same as the NSLP data. Be careful to use the NSLP data.
5) If you have any questions about your NSLP information, contact Joan Plank in the Bureau of Food and Nutrition at 717-783-6558.
6) If you have any questions about calculating your E-rate discounts, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jtschell@comcast.net. Don’t forget, the final day to post a 470 is February 26, and the final day to post a 471 and Item 21 attachments is March 26!
— Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
PA E-rate Coordinator
717-730-7133 – o
717-730-9060 – f
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org
Penn*link