Considerations for utilizing collected income form data directly from RocketScan's database

Considerations for utilizing collected income form data directly from RocketScan's database

INFO: The application type discussed in this article is the Income Form, but it is also known as "LCFF form", "income survey", "alternative income form", "Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) form", "student education benefit form", "school benefit form", "data for school funding form", etc.
RocketScan uses National School Lunch Program (NSLP) requirements to evaluate an Income Form for benefit eligibility. The data collected by RocketScan from an Income Form is stored as a snapshot; it does not dynamically change when new information becomes available. Retrieving this data outside of RocketScan's interface may result in outdated or irrelevant information.

RocketScan's Income Form Reports wizard allows the user to get the most up-to-date information possible for reporting on the collected Income Form data. One of the tools that may be accessed from this interface is to update Directly Certified/Directly Certified Reduced status. If a student's DC status changed since their Income Form was originally processed, this tool may be used to update their reported status accordingly. This feature cannot be triggered outside of RocketScan's interface.


If an external method is used to return the current active records from the Income Forms data stored in the RocketScan database, there may be some issues with the results. For example:

Let's say that an alternate income survey is received for Student 1 and Student 2. The district processes the survey that same day with income information used as the determining factor to calculate the benefit that would be received per NSLP. Based on the income from their survey, Student 1 and Student 2 would not receive a benefit and be marked as “Paid” in RocketScan's Income Form report. A result from a SQL query to the database would also show a "Paid" status.

A few days later Student 1 becomes Directly Certified to receive NSLP benefits while Student 2 is still not listed as being a recipient of Direct Certification. However, the Income Form report — generated either from within RocketScan or obtained directly from the database — would still show a "Paid" status for Student 1 and Student 2. This is because without triggering the Income Form Reports wizard and performing the DC status update, the collected LCFF data will not include new information that has been received that would alter the reported benefit determination.

Now let's say a RocketScan user utilizes the Income Form Reports wizard. The system re-processes the income survey based on the updated DC status information, creates a new record in the database (the old record is kept for historical accounting), and the new record is marked as "active".  A report generated — either from within RocketScan or obtained directly from the database — after the DC status is updated using the wizard will show Student 1 and Student 2 as Directly Certified (Student 1 = DC and Student 2 = DC-Extended).

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