<p>But why is it of such paramount importance that a kid’s balance never be slightly in the red in the first place? Sure, a certain number of people are going to ignore the first, gentle reminder that a balance is running low, especially if that’s a routine notification. Probably, most of them are fully intending to replenish the account, but allow it to slip their mind. I don’t believe that there’s an epidemic of school lunch scofflaws looking to bilk the school out of lunch money indefinitely, and the ones that are probably aren’t going to be all that bothered by a stamp on their kid’s hand either. The upshot is that the policy’s effect, as far as I can tell, is to make sure that people who were going to pay anyway pay on a slightly timelier basis, and save school administrators a modest amount of time spent making phone-calls to a probably not unwieldy number of recalcitrant parents.</p>
<p>Not a problem for me. Stamp away. Actually, my D always thought it was unfair that she couldn’t get free lunch. Why should she have to pay when little Susie gets hers free? Kids!</p>
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<p>Too many kids, not enough time for the cashier to do anything else in many large public schools. Nowadays, as already mentioned the schools send automated email messages, but as also already mentioned many parents ignore those. Stamps are more effective.</p>
<p>Would you rather have your kid go hungry (because at some point they will be switched to cheese sandwiches when the balance hits negative and no ones eats those) or get a stamp (so that you could be reminded to pay)? Stamp does not indicate negative balance (only low balance), cheese sandwich does.</p>
<p>But why is it of such paramount importance that a kid’s balance never be slightly in the red in the first place</p>
<p>What are you suggesting? Are schools supposed to let families run tabs for awhile? If so, for how long and for how much? On one hand I see a minor debt as being ok (maybe 2 lunches), but since there are thousands of kids in each district, if a number of them are running up debts, you could be talking about large amounts of money.</p>
<p>*At our school district, the kids would just be told at lunch that your balance is getting low. The kids are then reminded about it at lunch every day until more money is added to their account.</p>
<p>When the balance goes down to $5, a note is sent home. The kids are then reminded about it at lunch every day until more money is added to their account.</p>
<p>If the balance goes negative, another note is sent home. The kids are then reminded about it at lunch every day until more money is added to their account. </p>
<p>Pretty simple and straight forward… and it works.*</p>
<p>Well, that still involves “an announcement” of sorts that others nearby can likely hear…over and over again. I’m not saying that’s “bad,” it’s just another way that others can know/hear about it.</p>
<p>If parents know that their kid would be embarrassed about a hand stamp then make sure you have adequate money in the acct at all times. If you can’t afford to do that, then make a lunch!</p>
<p>Are these accounts the only way to pay for lunches anymore? Do cashiers still take cash?</p>
<p>I would sooner just give cash to take if I want them to buy a lunch that day, or pack one otherwise. Like we always did. I think I had an occasion of losing my lunch money or forgetting my lunch once… and I lived! And never forgot again.</p>
<p>It’s no wonder to me that kids today have issues if they are so untrustworthy we can’t even justify trying to send a note home from school anymore. I used to be required to get my assignment book (which I was required to keep) signed by a parent every day-- the horror! How did we ever manage?</p>
<p>You can give cash, which the kids have to turn in to be put in the account.</p>
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<p>In good old days, the kids who did not have to pay cash were instantaneously identified as those getting free lunches, which lead to the development of the current system.</p>
<p>so your telling me they put a stamp on kids who were getting free lunches / this Principal didn’t like the rules and went against them/ she should be fired for not doing the job she was hired for … you have kids who get free lunches / and go through the line to get another free lunch this is their way of telling who got their lunch already trust me many school districts do this / its not about labeling / just another way to spin the true facts</p>
<p>We have a program where a food bank gives needy kids a bag of food to take home on every other Friday. They line up and march to another building where they choose from donated boxes of cereal, canned goods, etc. I suppose some could call this shaming but I assure you no-one sees it that way. The kids love picking out their favorite foods and the kids who don’t go are not pointing and laughing. Some are probably slightly jealous. It’s the rare kid for whom this is an issue imho.</p>
<p>your telling me they put a stamp on kids who were getting free lunches / this Principal didn’t like the rules and went against them/ she should be fired for not doing the job she was hired for … you have kids who get free lunches / and go through the line to get another free lunch this is their way of telling who got their lunch already trust me many school districts do this / its not about labeling / just another way to spin the true facts</p>
<p>Linda…I’m too ADD to follow what you wrote…but, it’s NOT the FREE LUNCH kids who get their hand stamped. Only PAYING kids MIGHT get their hands stamped when their balances run low. Free lunch kids NEVER have balances that run low because they don’t have a balance. Their lunches are free.</p>
<p>it could be argued that stamping kids hands is like listing honor rolls. If your name isn’t on the honor roll then everyone knows that your grades weren’t so hot. If you never get your hand stamped then that might suggest that you get free lunch. The free lunch kids are probably begging for an occasional hand stamp.</p>
<p>FRL = “free or reduced lunch.” A lot of this thread has envisioned full-pay (most of CC, I guess) or no-pay (free), forgetting the “R.”</p>
<p>Reduced Lunch kids would get stamped also, because they have to provide some money from home. IME the “R” families are the “working poor” with 2+ jobs but the money won’t stretch far enough each week. The cafeteria workers themselves were heads-of-household in “R” families. </p>
<p>How do we even have “working poor”? Keep in mind that 77% of all minimum wage workers are adults, not teens, according to Bureau of Labor Dept Statistics. [Who</a> makes minimum wage? - Economy](<a href=“http://economy.money.cnn.com/2013/02/13/who-makes-minimum-wage/?iid=EL]Who”>http://economy.money.cnn.com/2013/02/13/who-makes-minimum-wage/?iid=EL) Even teen preganacies are Adult by the time kids begin school. (16+5=21). So if we could factor out the much older adults who work minimum wage jobs, it’s some number smaller than a whopping 77% but still the majority compared to teen min wage workers. Min wage is no longer the entryway of teen labor into better jobs. Today, it’s the jobs adults take when they get kicked off of their better work. They are “R” parents.</p>
<p>If late to pay, the R’s I knew who worked at schools weren’t spacey – they were very well organized and squeezing every dollar. I don’t even think they needed reminders, they just didn’t have it to send in time. Something else always came first – medicine, diapers, gasoline to get to work, electricity cannot wait. So they held off the school. STAMP "EM!</p>
<p>From what my kids tell me there’s barely time to get through the lines and eat with the lunch times they have. They can pay cash per item/meal but if everyone does that the line would tend to move a lot slower with having to stop and make change, etc. </p>
<p>Never seen hand stamps used here. My D went through a stage in late elementary and middle school where she and her friends would draw little pictures/notes on themselves. So I doubt we’d have noticed a hand stamp.</p>
<p>I doubt also that the kids would notice a hand stamp and make some sort of judgment. Thankfully.</p>
<p>Independently of stamps, the kids know they are very poor (free lunch) or financially strained (reduced-price lunch). Or they will know soon, with all kinds of messages from society and what the parents themselves say around them.</p>
<p>But this Principal was terminated for conscience. She turned away settlement money so she could speak about it. SHE didn’t want small children to associate public school with the message that they are poor. She believed this hurt kids.</p>
<p>Wow, it seems like everyone in this thread likes to complain about everything.</p>
<p>I was in elementary school 7 years ago, and when my lunch account ran under, I wasn’t allowed to buy extras. If it was too low, I got a sandwich. We also got stamped. Guess what? No one cared. Kids are too dumb to understand the concept of money anyway. Also, I can’t remember one instance of anyone making fun of a FRL kid, and I come from a fairly affluent area. I feel like the parents on this thread forgot what elementary school was like.</p>
<p>Also, the comparison of kids getting stamped to remind their parents to pay to the Jews in the Holocaust is insulting.</p>
<p>Paying3…</p>
<p>How much is reduced lunch at your school? In some places it is as low as 40 cents…and breakfast is free…</p>
<p>We don’t know why this principal was fired. Having been in more than my share of small town school board meetings nothing would surprise me.</p>
<p>About the stamps…no problem.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, by law students can’t be charged more than 40 cents per Reduced meal, anywhere, so your district is charging the maximum possible. But you charge 0 for breakfast, so that’s a balance.</p>
<p>At the school where I taught 8 years ago, a Reduced meal now costs: 25cents for breakfast, 25 cents for lunch.</p>
<p>This year, 36% of that district’s 1103 h.s. students are eligible for Free Lunch (but I taught elementary - same families, so probably similar.) I have to estimate that another 40% take Reduced Lunch, because I can’t find that data but recall it was always slightly more than Free Lunch candidates. </p>
<p>It’s a rural district with a “HIGH” ratio of Need : Community Resources, relative to state averages. Translation: poor small town whose weak local tax base could not well handle the needs of its own students, as compared to other rural school districts in the state. </p>
<p>I was curious so researched eligibility cutoff points by Federal law, all U.S. schools:</p>
<p>Free Lunch: household income for family of 4 is under $30,615. (130% of fed poverty level)</p>
<p>Full Pay: household income for family of 4 is over $43,568. (185% of fed poverty level)</p>
<p>REDUCED: household income for family of 4 is between $30,615 - 43,568. (130-185%)</p>
<p>To be quite honest I can’t believe that the principle was fired just on that account. I feel as though there is more to the story. Just a hunch. </p>
<p>If the stamps truly are for kids on free and reduced lunches, its a terrible practice.</p>
<p>If the stamps are for kids with low balances, well, maybe not great, but it would help the kids remember to tell their parents they need more money.</p>
<p>I wish I knew more, but it seems like the schools hands are legally tied to discuss the reasons for firing. I think the principal should release liability and allow the school to discuss and present their side. From what I read we had a new computer system and one child who was on free/reduced lunch was mistakenly hand stamped. For some reason the system didn’t show the child was eligible. I think it only happened once. My kids came home a bunch of times with their hands stamped to remind me that they needed lunch $. Not a big deal and they weren’t “shamed” in any way! Of course I don’t condone hand stamping on a free lunch child- this is NOT the practice of our school -only a temporary mistake. As for other students- we have a new system that you can link the account to a credit card and have it auto replenish the lunch account when it falls below any $ amount you choose. So, if any parent takes offense to their child’s hand stamp they have no one to blame but themselves. Again, I feel there has to be more to this than what is being discussed- one sided. I, for one, would want all the facts before jumping to conclusions.</p>