Report 2021-613 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2021-613: Pandemic Food Assistance Programs: The California Department of Social Services Has Struggled to Deliver Timely Food Assistance Because of Unclear Federal Expectations and Other Factors Beyond Its Control (Release Date: October 2021)

Recommendation #1 To: Social Services, Department of

To ensure that all eligible families are aware of and have the opportunity to participate in P-EBT, CDSS should—in coordination with CDE as necessary—by no later than February 2022, begin identifying the schools attended by children eligible for P-EBT whose families have not yet received their P-EBT cards or have not used their P-EBT cards.

As recommended, on April 6, 2022, CDSS provided CDE a list of unused P-EBT 2.0 schoolchild cards, with unique identifiers included.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented

CDSS provided evidence that it identified and created a list of the schools attended by children eligible for P-EBT whose families have not yet received their P-EBT cards or have not used their P-EBT cards. It also provided evidence that it sent the list to CDE.

CDSS met with CDE on 10/28/2021 to develop a corrective action plan for the audit related findings. To address this recommendation, CDSS has requested a list of unused P-EBT cards from our card vendor Fidelity Information Services (FIS). Once that information is received, our Research Automation, and Data Division (RADD) will then add a unique identifier called a StuKey to the FIS list. Once we have the list of unused P-EBT cards with the unique identifier attached we will provide the list to CDE, which we anticipate happening no later than May 2022.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2021-613

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.