Policy 4200 Implementation Procedures - Meal Charges

Families are encouraged to prepay for meals and money is accepted in the school cafeteria or Food and Nutrition Services Office daily for payments on the day of service. Written notification of prepayment options occurs at the beginning of each school year, is given to each new transfer student, and is posted on the Food and Nutrition Services website.

Payment for school meals is expected at the point of sale at the time of purchase.

All students will be treated with dignity in the serving line regardless of their ability to pay for meals.

No student will be denied a meal because of financial circumstances beyond a student’s control.

Once a HCPSS employee places a meal on a tray or otherwise serves the meal to a student, the meal may not be taken away from the student by any HCPSS employee regardless of the student’s account balance or ability to pay. Student meals may be removed and replaced by HCPSS employees for health reasons.

Students may be eligible for free meals if:

Students may be eligible for free and reduced-price meals (FARMs) if the household income to household size ratio is within the reduced-price limits on the Federal Income Guidelines.

When a student has a negative meal account balance, the student will not be allowed to charge a la carte items to their meal accounts regardless of the meal benefit status.

When a student eligible for PAID meals has “cash in hand” to pay for a meal, the student will be served a meal regardless of unpaid food service accounts. The “cash in hand” will not be applied towards past due meal account balances.

Any reminders for payment of outstanding student meal account balances will not demean or stigmatize any child participating in the school lunch program, including but not limited to dumping meals, withdrawing a meal that has been served, providing an alternate meal, announcing, or listing students' names publicly, or affixing stickers, stamps, or pins.

All communications about meal debt or students' inability to pay must be conducted in reasonable confidence with the parent of the student, not with the student. Communications about lunch debt or students' inability to pay must not be conducted in the presence of other students or adults who are not HCPSS employees, contractors, or service providers without the parent’s permission.

Unpaid meal charges are rolled over into the next school year as delinquent debt and remain in the student’s meal account until paid.

Any meal charges are considered a debt against a federal program and must be repaid.

Bad debt costs are unallowable. Food and Nutrition Services account funds may not be used to cover costs related to bad debt and may not be absorbed.

Parents will assume the responsibility of meal charges on delinquent accounts.

No student is allowed FARMs without a current approved application on file with Food and Nutrition Services.

Families may submit, and Food and Nutrition Services and schools will accept applications for FARMs.

If a student is without meal money on a consistent basis, the principal/designee will investigate the situation more closely and take further action as needed. If financial hardship exists, parents will be encouraged to apply for FARMs.

Once approved for FARMs, a student’s eligibility remains in effect for the duration of the school year and for 30 operating days into the following school year, or until a new eligibility determination is made, whichever comes first.

Students will begin the new school year with the same status as the previous year. The 30-day grace period allows for time to submit a new FARMs application. If no new application is received, the student’s status becomes paid after the grace period has ended.

Parents who apply for FARMs benefits are responsible for payment of all school meals and accumulated charges until approval is granted. Federal guidelines allow a maximum of ten (10) days to approve a new FARMs application.

Parents will receive a notification letter of a student’s eligibility showing the effective date. If a notification letter is not received within ten (10) days after a FARMs application is submitted, the parent should check with Food and Nutrition Services to see if the application has been received.

If a family’s income decreases at any time during the school year, a FARMs application may be completed to determine eligibility.

Notices of meal charges will be sent to parents at regular intervals during the school year until outstanding charges are paid in full.

Any family that falls into a negative balance will receive a written notification to encourage them to apply for FARMs benefits.

Food and Nutrition Services will send out low balance notices prior to students needing to charge for meals. HCPSS employees involved in the collection of delinquent debt for meals will ensure that their efforts do not have a negative impact on the student involved and will instead focus primarily on adults in the household responsible for providing funds for meal purchases.

Food and Nutrition Services will send monthly negative meal charge balance letters to the homes of parents beginning as soon as the student’s meal account becomes delinquent.

Food and Nutrition Services will notify and/or work with school pupil personnel workers, school nurses, and other authorized HCPSS employees to understand the student and parent’s situation and if a FARMs application is needed. Unauthorized persons, such as parent volunteers, may not be used to follow up with payment reminders or debt collection efforts.

Individual schools may set up accounts with parent teacher organizations or other groups to provide funds for students with meal charges. These accounts would be set up and administered by Food and Nutrition Services.

All meal charge accounts will be settled by the end of the school year. Letters will be sent home to parents requesting in writing “Payment in Full” approximately two weeks before the last day of the school year for students whose meal accounts are in deficit. All charges not paid before the end of the school year will be carried forward into the next school year.

Delinquent and bad debt accounts and records must be retained for three (3) years after the date of the final claim for reimbursement for the fiscal year to which they pertain and must be available to Food and Nutrition Services.

Types of records to be maintained include evidence of efforts to collect unpaid meal charges, evidence that collection efforts fell within the time frame and methods established by the policy, financial documentation showing when the unpaid meal charge became an operating loss, evidence that the funds written off as bad debt were restored to the nonprofit food service account from non-federal sources.

HCPSS may solicit and receive any donation or other funds for the purpose of eliminating or offsetting any school meal debt at any time and will use any such funds solely for such purpose.

HCPSS welcomes families to donate excess funds left in their child’s meal account.

HCPSS Food and Nutrition Services will apply donated funds received for specific schools to those schools. Donated funds will be applied based on the following criteria/priority:

HCPSS will follow appropriate processes regarding unclaimed funds.

Food and Nutrition Services will send notices to parents/families whose students may have left the school system but still have funds in the meal accounts. Students who have graduated or have withdrawn from HCPSS have three options for moving funds or balances from student accounts:

If graduated or withdrawn students have not claimed any money left on their meal account after two (2) years, these balances will be used by the Food and Nutrition Services to benefit the program.

Refunds may be requested at any time until two years after a student graduates or becomes withdrawn.

Policy 4200 Meal Charges and any pertinent supporting information will be provided in writing to:

HCPSS will also post the policy on the school system’s website, in addition to providing the required written notification described above.

All communications about lunch debt or students' inability to pay must be conducted in reasonable confidence with the parent of the student, and not with the student. Communications about meal debt or students' inability to pay must not be conducted in the presence of other students or adults who are not HCPSS employees, contractors, or service providers without the parent’s permission.

Alternate Meal – A meal provided to students who do not have money available to pay for their school meal.

Bad Debt – Debts which have been determined to be uncollectable and must be written off as an operating loss.

Delinquent Debt – Unpaid meal charges are considered “delinquent debt” when payment is overdue, as defined by state or local policies. Delinquent debt is considered collectable if efforts are being made to collect it. Delinquent debt remains on the accounting documents until it is either collected or is determined to be uncollectable and written off. Unpaid meal charges may be carried over at the end of the school year as a delinquent debt and collection efforts may continue into the new school year.

Homeless Student – A student who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, whether or not the temporary housing is located in Howard County, including:

Runaway Student – A student who has left home without parental permission and stays away for one or more nights.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – Program (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) which provides food-purchasing assistance for low and no-income people living in the United States.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) – Program (often referred to as "welfare") is one of the United States of America’s federal assistance programs, providing cash assistance to indigent American families with dependent children through the United States Department of Health and Human Services.