MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made; Review Q2’23 Reports by April 20, 2023

The recovery of Q2’23 MaineCare Seed will occur in the April 2023 subsidy payment. The Maine DOE is asking Districts to review their reports by April 20, 2023, to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review, and submit disputes, student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q2’23 by April 20, 2023.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO: https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard
Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click view report button
Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button.

You may export the reports to Excel but, please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

To dispute a claim:

If you disagree that a particular student or time period should not be on the report, please send an email with the following information for each State Student ID to Denise.towers@maine.gov.

State Student ID
The reason that you disagree
Identify the type of report: public or private
Quarter in which the claims are located
Service provided dates (From and To)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services:

Students must be enrolled for the time period they are receiving educational services. This means that students that are receiving extended school year services in district or extended school year services in an out of district placement must have a primary enrollment for that time period in order for the MDOE to have the most accurate enrollment data to determine SAU responsibility for MaineCare Seed.

If you have difficulty logging into NEO:

Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module, will automatically have permissions to access MaineCare reports.

As in the past, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE helpdesk will be necessary. The helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896.

Please contact Denise.towers@maine.gov

for more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed.

Maine DOE Child Nutrition Kicks off 2023 Farm-to-School Cook-off on March 27

(Pictured: Caleb Pratt & Gina Bailey from Team Son-Day- competing in last year’s Westbrook Regional Cook-off)

The Maine Department of Education, Child Nutrition team is kicking off their annual Farm to School Cook-off this month! The cook-off is a statewide culinary competition for teams of school nutrition professionals and students to promote local foods in school meals. This voluntary competition is made available to all school districts in Maine.

This year, two regional competitions will be held:

March 27th – Teams representing RSU 54 and RSU 21 will compete.
April 5th – Teams representing Lewiston Public Schools and RSU 17 will compete.

Both competitions will take place in the Child Nutrition Culinary Classroom in Augusta. The top team from each regional competition will face off at the final’s competition, also in Augusta, to determine the 2023 Farm to School Cook-off State Champion.

2022 Cook-off Champions- McMahon Tigers: Alain Lemesse & Alicia Smith

Each team, consisting of one student and one school nutrition employee, is tasked to prepare a breakfast and lunch meal using specific recipe guidelines and time restrictions and will present to a panel of judges. At least three local ingredients and one USDA food must be used in each meal. Local rolled oats donated by Maine Grains and local carrots donated by Emery Farm will be used as “challenge” ingredients in the competition. All recipes will later be shared in a Maine farm-to-school cookbook to be used in future school meals programs.

For questions about the Farm-to-School Cook-off, contact Maine DOE Child Nutrition Supervisor, Stephanie Stambach at stephanie.stambach@maine.gov. For more information on Maine’s Farm and Sea to School program, visit https://www.maine.gov/doe/farmtoschool.

Nutrition & Economic Disadvantaged Data Collection Webinar

Join the Maine Department of Education (DOE) as we discuss alternative methods for collecting economic disadvantage data for the EPS formula that do not involve free and reduced lunch forms.

The Maine DOE’s Data, Nutrition, and Finance teams will be collaborating to provide guidance about Special Provision II procedures and how to collect data to inform the EPS School Funding formula to mark economically disadvantaged students. Special Provision II schools and Community Eligibility Provisions (CEP) require that free and reduced lunch form are not sent out to families, however those forms are used to inform the EPS School funding formula.

Are you a Special Provision School? What does that mean for Child Nutrition and for EPS School Funding? Join Jane McLucas from Child Nutrition, Paula Gravelle from School Finance, and a member from the Data Team as they talk about what changes will be coming, and best practices to have in place to be ready for next year!

Monday, March 20th @ 1:30pm – Register Here
(this webinar will be recorded)

For questions about this webinar or collection of economic disadvantaged data please contact our data quality trainer by email Alexandra.Cookson@maine.gov or call 207-446-3897.

2023 Spring Wellness Workshops

The Maine Department of Education Schoolsite Wellness team is pleased to host StrengthenME and the Northern Light Health Workforce EAP to provide educators and school staff with FREE wellness workshops.

Join any or all of the following 30-minute wellness workshops every other Thursday at either 7:15 a.m. or 3:15 p.m.

March 16 – Staying Grounded When Others are Escalating – Now, more than ever, our ability to stay calm is being put to the test. In this workshop, we’ll explore strategies for de-escalating ourselves and others, putting our minds ahead of our emotions to succeed as individuals and as part of a larger community.

March 30 – Asking for Help – It isn’t always easy to ask for help, particularly when you’re used to being the helper. This workshop explores common barriers to seeing help and offers strategies to effectively and mindfully ask for and receive the help you need.

April 13 – Letting Go of What We Can’t Control – Holding on to things we can’t control can cause us a great deal of stress and unhappiness. It also keeps us from growing and living our lives freely. This workshop explores strategies for letting go and includes a 10-minute guided mindfulness practice.

APRIL 27 – Boundary Setting and Saying No – Setting boundaries is an important part of establishing one’s identity and is a crucial aspect of mental health and well-being. This workshop reviews ways to set healthy emotional boundaries and ways to navigate boundary setting effectively.

May 11 – Quieting the Mind – In this workshop, we’ll explore the idea of Monkey Mind and how the demands of life impact our ability to experience a quiet mind. We will review ways to quiet the mind, and practice using mindfulness to slow racing thoughts.

These workshops are all accessible via this Zoom link.

Direct any questions to Ariele Worrall at aworrall@northernlight.org.

2023 Beyond the Basics in Suicide Prevention: Building Resilience and Safety in a Changing World

NAMI Maine is hosting its annual Beyond the Basics in Suicide Prevention Conference, in person on Friday, March 10th at the Augusta Civic Center. Register Here today.

Maine’s annual Beyond the Basics in Suicide Prevention Conference has provided health professionals, educators, clinicians, first responders, and community members with best practice information, guidance, and resources in suicide prevention and management efforts since its inception in 2003. This conference is a collaboration of organizations and individuals working to reduce suicide and the stigma that surrounds it. It is designed for an adult audience including secondary students seeking to deepen their understanding of prevention and expand their skill set when it comes to suicide prevention, intervention and postvention. Visit NAMI Maine’s Beyond the Basics webpage for details about our Keynote speaker, Gia Drew, and a full list of the available breakout sessions.

Reduced rates are available for student registrations upon request from your school, email to mspp@namimaine.org, and a limited number of scholarships are available upon request.

If you have questions or need more information email either Julianne (mspp@namimaine.org) or Greg (gmarley@namimaine.org) at NAMI Maine’s Suicide prevention Program.