Recommendation: The Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) should identify and disseminate strategies to states and service providers for increasing the participation of SNAP recipients referred to the SNAP E&T program. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Office of the Secretary: Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services: Food and Nutrition Service
Status: Open

Comments: FNS officials agreed with this recommendation and indicated they are taking steps towards closing it. Specifically, FNS officials said they plan to take the following actions to disseminate strategies on increasing participation among SNAP recipients referred to the SNAP E&T program: 1) update the SNAP E&T Best Practices Study to include strategies on increasing participation by December 2021; 2) publish results from Pilot Projects to Reduce Dependency and Increase Work Requirements and Work Effort Under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that include information regarding which outreach, referral, and enrollment processes are most effective by 2021; and 3) provide technical assistance through SNAP to Skills with new attention on increasing SNAP E&T participation and engagement among eligible SNAP participants. We will continue to monitor FNS's efforts to disseminate strategies through these mechanisms with a particular focus on ensuring these strategies reach both state officials and service providers.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FNS should take additional steps to address data reliability issues in the state-reported data on SNAP E&T participant characteristics and outcomes, including steps to address imprecise instructions on data collection forms and staff confusion at the state level. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Office of the Secretary: Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services: Food and Nutrition Service
Status: Open

Comments: FNS generally agreed with this recommendation. They noted that they have been providing continued technical assistance to states to improve data quality and in October 2018 made updates to the SNAP E&T data report. FNS plans or has additional changes pending to the SNAP E&T data report and SNAP Quality Control guidance that it plans to use to collect improved SNAP E&T data in fiscal year 2021. In addition, FNS plans to leverage results from data and technical assistance grants upon their completion in September 2020 to disseminate best practices to help states improve outcome reporting data. We are encouraged by FNS's efforts in these areas and will evaluate the results of these actions as we continue to monitor the agency's progress in addressing this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FNS should determine and communicate to states how the agency will use newly reported outcome and participant characteristics data to assess the effectiveness of state SNAP E&T programs. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Agriculture: Office of the Secretary: Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services: Food and Nutrition Service
Status: Open

Comments: FNS officials agreed with this recommendation. FNS officials noted that with the submission of January 2019 outcome reporting measures, the agency has a complete year of data which FNS will use to establish a baseline for each State's SNAP E&T program. However, FNS has not yet articulated how the data will be used to assess effectiveness of the programs, or provided examples of how FNS has used the data to provide feedback on the effectiveness of SNAP E&T programs. We will continue to monitor FNS's efforts to communicate to the states how the outcome data can be used to assess program effectiveness.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security, in collaboration with other agencies, through the planned interagency working group or another mechanism, should identify further opportunities to more effectively publicize resources to reach additional colleges. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In early 2020, the federal government created the schoolsafety.gov clearinghouse website to compile and publicize emergency preparedness resources from across multiple agencies including the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, and Justice. The website houses key emergency preparedness resources we identified during our work as well as newer information that was not part of our review, such as guidance related to the Coronavirus Pandemic. DHS issued a press release when the website was launched, but does not prominently publicize it on it website, including on its webpages that are specifically focused on colleges and universities. We will monitor the agency's efforts to publicize these resources and consider closing it at that time.

Recommendation: The Attorney General, in collaboration with other agencies through the planned interagency working group or another mechanism, should identify further opportunities to more effectively publicize resources to reach additional colleges. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Justice
Status: Open

Comments: In early 2020, the federal government created the schoolsafety.gov clearinghouse website to compile and publicize emergency preparedness resources from across multiple agencies including the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, and Justice. The website houses key emergency preparedness resources we identified during our work as well as newer information that was not part of our review, such as guidance related to the Coronavirus Pandemic. DOJ issued a press release when the website was launched, but does not prominently publicize it on it website, including on its webpages that are specifically focused on colleges and universities. We will monitor the agency's efforts to publicize these resources and consider closing it at that time.

Recommendation: To help improve students' access to information so that they can make well-informed transfer decisions, the Secretary of Education should require schools to (1) disclose the list of schools with which they have articulation agreements online if the school has a website, and (2) clearly inform students, on the school's website if it has one, when no articulation agreements on credit transfer are in place. If the department determines that it does not have the authority to require this, it should nonetheless encourage schools to take these actions (through guidance or other means).

Agency: Department of Education
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, Education continues to disagree with this recommendation, noting that it already requires schools to disclose a list of other schools with which they have established articulation agreements. However, we believe that posting this information online would make it more accessible to prospective students compared to publications located physically on a school's campus, particularly for those who live far away from the school. Education also noted that students should contact specific schools to obtain accurate and updated transfer information. However, we found that not all schools listed transfer-specific contacts on their websites. In addition, Education cautioned that placing special emphasis on articulation agreements could mislead students because the agreements - or lack thereof - do not fully reflect the transferability of credits However, we found that a majority of schools already disclose a list of partner schools on their websites. We believe that posting a list of partner schools online would complement credit transfer policies, which schools are already required to post online. Given that the purpose of required consumer disclosures on articulation agreements is to inform students, we continue to believe that posting this information online would make it more accessible to prospective students and their families while enhancing students' understanding of their transfer options.