Another ASG online enrollment program creating problems for the public

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The delay that some families are experiencing receiving their P-EBT benefits is due to inconsistency of information between what is filed online, versus the information provided by the Department of Education.

 “I also encourage our people to have patience and understanding and to please be respectful of those who are here to help them.  To receive P-EBT benefits, all they need to do is register online,” said the Human Social Services Director, Muavaefaatasi John Suisala.

The P-EBT benefits are for children who were enrolled in ECE through grade 12 in all public and private schools during School Year 2021-2022 that ended June 10, 2022.

It’s funded through an $8.8 million grant from the Food and Nutrition Service under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for school year 2021-2022 on March 22, 2022, while administrative funding to pay for implementing the program was approved on June 20, 2022.

The Director was responding to concerns by members of the public who continue to receive “error” messages on the DHSS system.

 “The DOE, DHSS and our MIS contractor continue work very closely in making sure that all school children who were enrolled in School Year 2021-2022 receive P-EBT benefits. 

 “All DOE and DHSS employees who are involved with the P-EBT Program are working tirelessly, long hours and over the weekend to serve our people.”

The Director also acknowledged the DOE and DHSS teams, particularly DOE's Student Services/Private Schools/School Data staff and DHSS' ASNAP staff for their hard work, dedication and commitment to serving the public. 

He urges members of the public to call in the ASNAP if they encounter problems.

 “Call the ASNAP and if the phones are busy or not being answered to please call again because staff are serving others, or go to the DOE to correct their records if they are asked to so in order to receive benefits. 

According to the Director, the requirement to qualify for P-EBT benefits is for students to have been enrolled in school during School Year 2021-2022. 

 “As such, the school records for public and private schools that the DOE submits to DHSS establish P-EBT eligibility for school children.  P-EBT benefits are issued in the form of food coupons.  Instead of issuing food coupons to each child, we issue P-EBT benefits to the parents or legal guardians whose names appear on the school records for the child or children. 

To receive P-EBT benefits, we require parents or legal guardians whose names are on the school records to register for their children using our online registration portal. 

If the parents or legal guardians register and enter the information for themselves and their children that match the information on the school records from DOE, their registrations get auto-approved right away and they are asked to call or come to the ASNAP office for a P-EBT ID card. Parents who still have their P-EBT ID cards from last year do not need new P-EBT ID cards.”

He said these P-EBT ID cards are required to pick up benefits from the ASNAP office and for purchasing food at any of the ASNAP authorized retail stores. 

 “Thus, the school records from DOE are important to establish eligibility for each child and to identify the parent or legal guardian who will receive and redeem the benefits on behalf of their child or children.  The online registrations are also important, as this is how we establish household case files in the ASNAP computer system that manages the P-EBT Program. 

 “For example, we need case files established in the system to generate benefits (e.g., commands the system to issue food coupons when the parent presents their P-EBT ID cards at the issuance window) and manages P-EBT benefits (e.g., tracks where the food coupons are spent and reconciles each food coupon after it is redeemed by the bank when the retail store deposits them).”

Furthermore the Director noted that although the DOE submitted to DHSS all public and private school records during the period when they prepared for the launch of the second round of P-EBT, it is necessary for DOE to update some of those records to correct the formatting such as separating the first name from the middle name or showing the first name first and last name second; submitting the records in a standard format.

Also remove characters in both the parents/legal guardians first names or last names such as "/", "&", "and", "or", "Mr. & Mrs." where it shows as Jack/Jill, Jack&Jill, Jack and Jack, Jack or Jill and Mr. & Mrs. Jack; correct birthdates, and similar issues. 

 “These types of issues cause error messages to appear when parents try to register when the names they enter do not match what is on the school records.”

Muavaefaatasi explained that information entered by some parents do not match the school records because they registered online using a different last name from their last names on the school records or they use one last name for one child and another last name for another child so they get an error message. 

 “In some cases, the father is associated with one child and the mother is associated with the other child. 

 “We also have cases where the mother registers online and received an error message because the father's name is on the school record or vice versa. 

 “In these cases, if they insist to claim the benefits for their children, we ask them to go to DOE to update their records.  “We also have cases where birthdates entered by parents are different from the school records and they are asked to go to DOE to make those changes.”

Adding that once DOE updates their records, they upload the updates to our MIS contractor, who reviews it for format consistency before they re-import them in the system. 

 “Parents are then asked to log back into their accounts after a day or two to resubmit their registrations (or to make appropriate corrections that we advise them to do to match the school records) in order to get their registrations auto-approved. 

 “Unfortunately, the majority of the parents also forgot their passwords and have to call or come in to the ASNAP for a temporary password to access their accounts.”

According to the Director, since they opened the online registration portal, DOE and their MIS contractor have been very busy cleaning up the data, putting them in a standard format, and updating the school records based on requests from parents in order to get their registrations processed and auto-approved. 

These updates are taking place everyday and are uploaded by DOE to our MIS contractor to re-import into the P-EBT system.

The benefits can be used up to February 28, 2023. The last day to register is September 16, 2022.  The last day to issue benefits is September 30, 2022.  The last day to use P-EBT food coupons is February 28, 2023.