Section 49562 Of Article 11. Meals For Needy Pupils In Kindergarten And Grades 1 To 12 From California Education Code >> Division 4. >> Title 2. >> Part 27. >> Chapter 9. >> Article 11.
49562
. (a) The department, in consultation with the State
Department of Health Care Services, shall develop and implement a
process to use participation data from the Medi-Cal program
administered pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 14000) of
Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to verify
income as established in the federal Child Nutrition and WIC
Reauthorization Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-265) and, to the extent
permitted under federal law, directly certify children whose families
meet the applicable income criteria into the school meal program.
(b) In the operation of this process, the department shall limit
the information needed from the State Department of Health Care
Services to identify families whose income falls below the
eligibility cutoff for free or reduced price meals, and the least
amount of information needed to facilitate a match of local school
records. The State Department of Health Care Services shall conduct
the data match of local school records and return a list to the
department, including only the data fields submitted by the
department and an indicator of program eligibility, as required by
federal law.
(c) The department and the State Department of Health Care
Services shall design this process to maintain pupil privacy and the
privacy of Medi-Cal recipients by establishing privacy and
confidentiality procedures consistent with all applicable state and
federal laws. To the extent permitted by state and federal law, the
department and the State Department of Health Care Services may
review the data only for the purposes of improving the effectiveness
of the data matches made pursuant to this section and Section 49561.
(d) The department specifically shall ensure that the process
conforms to the federal Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-191) by using strategies
employed by other states in Medicaid verification projects or by
developing a new strategy that ensures conformity.
(e) The department shall seek all necessary approvals to establish
this process and shall apply for available federal funds to support
the work of this process.
(f) This section shall become operative upon the receipt of
federal funds to assist the state in implementing the provisions of
this section.