Site Visits and Site Reviews Requirements

Pre-Operational Visits – Sponsors should visit all new and problem sites before they begin operations. These visits are required to make sure that the sites have facilities to provide meal services for the number of children expected to attend.

Site Visits - Sponsors are required to visit new and/or problematic sites at least once during the first week of operation except for returning sites that operated successfully during the previous summer and had no serious deficiency findings.

Site Reviews - Monitors must submit a review report form for each site review during the first 4 weeks of program operations, and for site reviews throughout the summer. This form will contain much of the same information as the Site Visit Form plus information concerning meal preparation and delivery schedules, the quality of site records and record keeping, the regular adjustment of meal orders, and whether changes are made in menus.

Retention of Records

As a sponsor, you must maintain all records for three years following the submission date of the final claim for reimbursement for the fiscal year. These records must be accessible to federal and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services personnel for audit and review purposes. Further, these records can only be disposed of if there are no unresolved audit findings or the program is not under investigation.

Administering the Program: Administrative Reviews

During the course of the summer, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will complete an administrative review of most sponsors' program operations. This administrative review will involve visits by Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services personnel to the sponsor's site(s) and office. The reviews are designed to ensure that a sponsor's overall program is operating according to requirements and to provide assistance and advice to a sponsor if there are questions about program operations.

Review Procedures

A Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services review of site operations will involve observing the meal service operations and the record-keeping at the site. A review at the sponsor level will involve a review of how the claim for reimbursement is assembled and a review of the records maintained by the sponsor. Regardless of the specific administrative review procedures, all sponsors must make their records available for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' review and must proceed with the corrective actions recommended, if there are any. The results of an administrative review may affect the amount of reimbursement a sponsor will receive.

Statistical Monitoring

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services may elect to use statistical monitoring procedures when it conducts administrative reviews of sponsors and may use the results to determine the sponsor's reimbursement. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will inform the sponsor if it plans to use statistical monitoring and will provide the sponsor with the necessary information on its procedures for conducting statistical monitoring.

Violations

Violations of program requirements may result in withholding or recovering reimbursement, temporary suspension, or termination and exclusion from future program participation.

Corrective Action Plan

When the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services finds violations during a sponsor or site review, it will require the sponsor to correct the problems found. The sponsor is required to respond with correction action with five days of the review or the sponsor can agree to the correction action response on the state monitors review form at the time of the review. If the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services finds a high level of meal service violations at a site, it will immediately require the sponsor to follow a specific corrective action plan. A follow-up system will be initiated to ensure that sponsors take the specific action (as outlined in the plan) for correcting site violations.