The article stated one child was in arrears after the family returned from a European ski vacation. That is not going to garner much sympathy from taxpayers who aren’t eager to subsidize that family.
Yes, it certainly did. There are always people who are going to abuse the kindness and generosity of others. I’d rather not be one of them.
I am certain you would not. The question presented, though, is how to convince taxpayers to subsidize this child, and presumably others like him. All of us might be willing to overlook one or two bad eggs. But if it is half of those in arrears? More? School officials seemed confident it was not a case of financial need for most of the charges at issue. So is it ok to send the message, pay for the Alps and we will take care of your kid?
I guess I am of the camp that all children should be served the same breakfast and lunch at school without charge, regardless of their family’s socioeconomic status. In my perfect world, of course! I would not be confident of my district’s ability to assess a family’s financial need without any documentation, simply the belief a family just returned from a ski trip. Do we have all the facts on that trip?
9125 students. 1653 in arrears. Almost 20%.
I do not mind at all if every one is subsidized, but do the taxpayers? Warwick is older than average in Rhode Island, which usually correlates with fixed income. So it is ok to ask senior citizens of limited means to pay for these kids lunches through their taxes? Maybe so for those families willing to file the paperwork or even make a phone call stating need. But to presume no one can afford or bother to feed their kids, so the rest of us should, is not how it works currently,nor how the budget is allocated. It is up to the family to supply the documentation or rationale, not the school district to chase after it nor just assume poverty.
@roycroftmom, I can’t find or you edited a post at the beginning of the thread that you said if they couldn’t pay, they could just bring something from home. I hope you realize that there are many children that don’t have anything to bring, and often the food at school may be their only meal of the day?
No money in the districts to float all this. No money in the state coffers for this, next year or the next. So how would this work?
Seems you’d wan the feds to support it. But at the sme time, some here are saying poor parents won’t always apply. It’s a conundrum.
And suppose a wealthier family ignores the costs? You’d want to feed those kids, too. No fed reimbursement?
I don’t see this as a cold lunch vs hot lunch issue.
Yes, I know that, @cottontales, but not for the children at issue here, according to school officials. These were not poverty stricken urchins desperate for a meal, however appealing that storyline would be to some. The headline could have as easily been, “globetrotting parents stiff school district without consequences”, setting bad example for all. It is really important that our limited resources go to those who are actually needy, and we will have more of those if we didnt just accept fraud and greed as an acceptable occurrence. It isnt.
I’ve screwed up in my life before and neglected to deal with paperwork I should have dealt with. I don’t want my kid to be shamed because of it, and I don’t think anyone else’s child should be shamed because of their parents either. Kids deal with enough bullying and humiliation in school as it is; the school should never be part of it. Period.
I think we all agree about the kids’ needs.
With F/R Priced Lunch, the feds require a balanced meal, per their standards. That includes the veggie, fruit, and milk. Not pizza, chips, ice cream or other a la carte items.
You know the nationwide hubbub about kids discarding the veggie and fruit. All kids. I do think we need to skip some of the emotions associated with this and focus more on what appropriate nutrition is and how to get kids to eat these better meals. It’s not necessarily the generic term, “hot lunch.”
The headline could have been “School uses humiliation of children to punish their parents” too. That cannot be a pedagogical technique we endorse.
Then vote to supply the same lunch to all in your district, and eliminate the soccer team or band or AP classes or whatever to pay for it. That is a rational approach too. But it does no good to pretend there are not trade offs-public school funding is a finite source, so choose where and how to spend it wisely. Free lunch for all is fine with me. What gets cut?
Football.
Fine with me, get your neighbors to vote with you and implement a lunch for football tradeoff. And maybe not to offer pizza, chips, ice cream or other a la carte items for sale if they want to focus on healthy eating.
Oh! Oh! I pick football. Cut football and buy lunches for everyone.
Here what one district does to make folks aware when they have a negative balance. The last data I found said this district has $200K in lunch debts. But it’s a lot bigger than Warwick.
The following communication methods are used to notify households about student meal accounts with a negative balance:
Email notifications sent out each Monday (or following operational day) to the primary parent/guardian on file with the Nutrition Services software to all families with a negative balance.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays: Time permitting, calls, emails, letters from cafeteria staff located at the schools.
To review the procedures, click on the link: Procedures for School Cafeteria Meal Accounts
Thursdays: Automated calls and emails sent out to parents/guardians listed on the student registration form with a negative balance greater than -$10 for students with a Paid eligibility status.
I would pick football too, but I do recognize this hurts impoverished African American males disproportionately, as those may be more likely to acquire football scholarships to college than others. So ironically, we eliminate the football college ticket for genuinely needy kids to pay for lunch for the Alps’ skiers.
Well, from what I understand, some school advoctes are pulling for showers and washing machines for students, too. Then there’s the issue of child care at the hs, which IS in practice in many places.
See how complex this gets? “Food over Football,” yes. Better social support in the communities, yes. And more.
Our district provides all elementary students with a free breakfast.
Procedures vary by grade level when students are in arrears but everyone is fed the same regular meal - no a la carte items.
In 2017, the debt cap for high school students was eliminated - previously they could only owe $20. An automated call system alerts families when money is owed. Accounts can be replenished online. When a HS student regularly owes more than $25, the department reaches out to the family to see if there is eligibility for free/reduced lunch. There is also a hardship fund as federal funds can’t be used to eliminate debt. In 2017, the balance due for the entire division was around $8000 out of $4.1 million in sales, around $170 of that from the HS seniors.
The division had tried an “alternate meal” plan when HS students were behind, but found it difficult to enforce and also found that more students would skip meals rather than have it be known they were behind.
Almost 68% of the district is eligible for free lunches. Another 5% for reduced price meals. We even have football, AP classes, band, a STEM academy and a fine arts academy! Oh yes, child care too - and transportation for student moms because you can’t use an infant seat on the school bus. Something here is working. I wish I knew how it could work everywhere.
Sure it is complex. Educating and motivating students from diverse backgrounds/SES is complex. If getting them to be an engaged member of the school community necessitates washing machines, showers, etc. I’m all for it. All this stuff costs a pittance compared to what it will cost if students are not engaged learners.
I live in a community that is one of the wealthier ones in my state but there are students that still have needs. The school is the point of contact for sussing out who needs help and what kind of help. Could be clothes, could be a weekend’s worth of food that they discretely take home every weekend to ensure they get some food when not at school. Schools need to partner with families, not shame them.
It would be interesting to learn how far in arrears some of these families of means are. I’m sure most of us has paid a bill late now and then, not because we don’t have the money but due to things slipping through the cracks and busy schedules. I know we were a week or so in arrears on a lunch bill at some point. Back in the days before automation, kids neglected to tell us or the notice was lost in the bottom of a backpack. It happens.