Community Corner
Toms River Schools Respond To Report On Bad School Lunch Program Applications
Office of the State Comptroller investigated abuse of the National School Lunch Program
Toms River schools properly denied three non-school public employees who were not eligible for free and reduced lunch, school officials said Thursday.
Toms River Regional received a request for documents concerning the "Free and Reduced "lunch program filed by public employees. "We supplied documents and provided our verification process," according to an email sent to Patch by Tammi Millar, district communications coordinator.
A state report investigating abuse of the National School Lunch Program released Wednesday indicates that three public employees in Toms River filed inaccurate information on their applications to enroll in the program.
In total, the Office of the State Comptroller referred for prosecution the names of 83 public employees throughout New Jersey who provided false information about their income on free lunch applications they submitted to school districts. The findings were made over a three-year review of 15 school districts in New Jersey, including Toms River.
In Toms River, it also was found that 49 percent of applicants had their benefits reduced or eliminated after the district verified the information submitted and found inaccuracies.
Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In the email to Patch, school officials provided a question-and-answer series that addressed the report's findings:
Q: What is our verification process?A: We follow the state's verification process. We verify 3 percent of applications that are not direct certification, as required by state law.
Q: Will we change our procedures?
A: We follow the state procedures to the letter and we will continue to.
Q: Are the three employees active?
A: These employees are not employees of Toms River Regional Schools.
"These persons were denied free or reduced lunch because they could not prove or substantiate the income level submitted on their application. Toms River Regional denied the application and no benefits were provided. These are public employees who work for some other governmental entity," according to the email.
"Toms River Regional Schools handled the verification process 100 percent correctly and those who should have been denied were denied. The name of this report is Fraudulent School Lunch Applications FILED."
"No benefits were received by the three individuals as Toms River Regional Schools had properly denied their applications."
Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
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