On August 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) released, SFSP 16-2024, Questions and Answers Related to SFSP 07-2021, Collection of Race and Ethnicity Data by Visual Observation and Identification in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) – Policy Rescission -Set 2.
The FNS memorandum provides further clarification on earlier published guidance documents. In addition, this guidance includes examples of challenges program operators may encounter and best practices that may be used to collect race and ethnicity data for the SFSP in order to meet the longstanding federal requirement to collect race and ethnicity data of program participants.
As a reminder, using visual identification is no longer an allowable practice per, SFSP 07-2021 Collection of Race and Ethnicity Data by Visual Observation and Identification in the Summer Food Service Program – Policy Rescission.
This policy memo is available on the USDA FNS Documents and Resources web page
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A California Department of Education Management Bulletin regarding collection of race and ethnicity data requirements in SFSP is forthcoming.