Kyran has developed a number of systems used by Departments of Education to meet the challenges of improving the quality of educators while complying with state and federal regulations and reporting requirements. These systems include:

Child Nutrition Programs

The Child Nutrition Programs (CNP) is a comprehensive, web-based application, claim processing and compliance system that manages the federal and state funded food programs. The CNP system manages all application, claim, compliance and reporting aspects of the following five (5) Federal Child Nutrition Programs:

• Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)

• Day Care Homes (DCH)

• National School Lunch & Breakfast (NSLB)

• Special Milk Program (SMP)

• Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)

The CNP system features:

• Sponsor level applications with budget details

• Site level applications

• Sponsor level claims

• Site level claims

• Back Office Processing including application and claim approval, claim payment processing and late claim exceptions

• Document and Reference library

• Electronic Claim upload from external systems

• Extensive table driven edit checks to ensure valid claims

• View/Print Reimbursement Statements

• Sponsor Compliance reporting

• Federal reporting (FNS-44, FNS-10, etc.)

• Automatic correspondence generation

• Automatic email ticklers and CNP staff To-do list

• Extensive reporting

• Claim advances, audit fees, over-payment recoveries and manual adjustments

• Review Module

• Payment Hold/Release

• ADA compliance

• Online Help system

• Annual rollover of application data

• Audit buttons on detail forms

• Multiple levels of access including:

  • Sponsoring agency

  • Site (provider)

  • State – CNP Staff

  • State – Fiscal Staff

Sponsor level applications

Each year, sponsors are required to submit a new Application Packet that includes an web-based application, a detailed budget for the program, and supporting documentation. Each site also has its own application and required documentation that must be submitted. The requirement for documents and applications varies across the Child Nutrition Programs. Extensive Online Help is available to assist the user in completing the application.

The CNP system manages the receipt of documents and applications. An online Application Packet Checklist is used by administrative staff to acknowledge receipt and disposition of documents and the application.  Sponsors are notified via e-mail with an attached letter when an administrator identifies issues with the application or has determined the final disposition of the application.

During the year, a sponsor may request an application amendment. For example, an application would be amended if site characteristics change or new sites must be added. Sponsors can easily amend an approved application.  The CNP system has an application rollover process that creates applications for the next fiscal year and carries forward information from the prior year’s applications.

Features of the Sponsor Application processing include:

• Dynamic Checklist of Application components

• Application forms, including:

  • Sponsor details that are shared by each program

  • Sponsor and Site level applications

  • Budget Spreadsheets

  • Race and Ethnic Reports

  • Authorized Claim Processors

  • Income Eligibility Forms (for the determination and use of blended rates)

• Application Amendment tracking

• Application rollover

Site level applications

Site applications can be entered by the site or by the sponsor. This site data is subject to specific business rules and is automatically rolled up to the Sponsor Application.

Features of the Site Application processing include:

• List of Site Applications

• Business rule validations

• Intuitive navigation from application to application

• Ability for the Sponsoring agency to add new sites

• Ability to amend an approved application

Sponsor level claims

Claims are entered on a monthly basis for all approved participating sponsors. Claims are submitted at the site level and then aggregated to the sponsor level. In general, a sponsor will submit a single sponsor claim with the related site claims. However, if all site claims are not ready to submit, the sponsor can submit a subset of sites and then submit additional claims for the month with the remaining sites.

The entry of claims is governed by a comprehensive set of business rules. Intuitive error messages are presented to the user to assist in the correction of any errors. The CNP system also manages claim revisions. Claim validation routines are used to ensure that the aggregate claim value for the period does not exceed any thresholds.

Sponsors have access to reimbursement information. For each claim that is submitted a sponsor can view the reimbursement details and payment voucher details.

Features of Claim processing include:

• Validation of site claim to application

• Validation of sponsor claim to application as well as to historic claims

• View of reimbursement details for the claim

• Intuitive navigation from claim to claim

• Multiple claims/multiple revisions

• Site-level entry of claims (NSLB, CACFP)

Back Office Processing including application and claim approval, claim payment processing and late claim exceptions

The CNP system conveniently manages the application review and approval process for sponsor and site applications. The system provides intuitive navigation for an administrator to quickly discern the disposition of each component of an application and navigate to those components.

When an application status changes or the application is terminated, the system automatically sends an e-mail message to the sponsor, with a form letter as an attachment, notifying the sponsor of the change. A tickler is sent to the administrator’s To-Do List to show that the letter was generated.

The CNP system processes payments for the following types of transactions:

• Approved Claims

• Advances – issued and recovered over multiple months

• Manual Adjustments – issued to the sponsors in the rare circumstance when the normal payment procedures are not appropriate

• Overpayment Recoveries – scheduled over several months

• Audit Fees – issued for partial reimbursement of expenses incurred for annual audits

The CNP system provides a Payment Hold/Release function for additional control of payments by putting payments on hold and then later releasing them from hold. Payment details are reviewed in the Trial Balance Report before being released for payment by the administrator. Payment details are written to a text file in a format compatible with the state’s specific payment system.

There are circumstances when sponsors must submit a late claim. All requests for late-claim exceptions are tracked within the system.

Extensive financial reports, including the USDA reports, are provided with the system.

Review Module

Electronic review packets provide the mechanism by which to manage the data collection and activities of a review, including the Administrative Review.  Key features of the Administrative Review packet include:

• Electronic checklists

• Corrective Action component

• Fiscal Action component

Non-compliant responses and discrepancies noted on various forms of the packet are used to generate Corrective Action Items.  Fiscal action calculations can be generated based on review data, in conjunction with claim and application data.

The packet interface allows the reviewer to assign components to the Sponsor.  Email notifications alert the sponsor that one or more components have been assigned for input.  The Sponsor is able to complete the components online and submit the components for review.

Carl D. Perkins Reporting

Kyran developed the web-enabled data collection system to promote the responsibility of achieving performance goals at the local level, increase the quality of CTE programs and promote a greater cooperation between the secondary and post-secondary institutions in the state.

The goal of the Perkins data collection and reporting system was to provide an easy-to-use, easy-to-maintain, web-based Perkins data entry collection system that would provide accurate data required to meet federal reporting requirements under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act. The system features:

• Provision of a single, central and secure database for the management of the Perkins data

• Integration with the state’s education web portal for a single sign-on by each local institution

• Integration with the state’s unique student identification system to ensure proper reporting of demographics, and a high degree of integrity with respect to unduplicated student reporting

• A provision to import student data from a flat file created by the local institution’s student management information system

• Hierarchy of courses, programs and career clusters

• Tightly integrated business rules to ensure the accuracy of data

• Provision to create an export file for matching employment/placement

• Provision to create an export file for matching of secondary academic assessment (test result) data and import the match results to improve reporting academic achievement

• Ability to provide institution-level enrollment and performance reports, with a goal-setting feature – identical to the federal reporting metrics