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F176

F176

 

Unpaid Meals

 

Lunch Charging Procedures

 

Meal accounts for students should be consistently funded throughout the school year to avoid students needing to charge for a meal. However, the Board recognizes that an occasional emergency may make it necessary to charge for a meal. Families needing assistance to apply for free or reduced lunch should contact the School Corporation’s Director of Food Service.

 

The Board’s policy and Superintendent’s procedure related to meal charges shall be distributed to all Corporation staff responsible for policy enforcement, including Corporation food service employees, accounting staff, building principals, and all other staff involved in enforcing any aspect of the meal charge policy. This information can also be found on schools website. 

 

The Corporation’s meal charging procedure is as follows:

 

  • Significant negative lunch account balances shall not be permitted. A significant negative lunch account balance is any balance owed in excess of $10.00;

 

  • If a student has a significant negative lunch account balance, s/he shall be provided an alternate meal at a reduced price recommended by the Superintendent or designee, the cost of which shall continue to accrue to his/her negative lunch account balance;

 

  • If a student has a significant negative lunch account balance, the student shall not be permitted to charge any à la carte food or beverage items;


 

  • After accruing $10.00 in meal charges, school cafeteria managers will make two attempts to contact parents/guardians to remind them that their student’s meal account balance is in the negative and that it needs to be paid immediately;

 

  • Building principals will attempt to call parents/guardians to reiterate the school cafeteria manager’s message if parents/guardians have been unresponsive to the manager’s two calls; and


 

  • Unpaid meal balances may be turned over to collections after thirty (30) days.

 

Families may deposit money into students’ meal accounts using a credit or debit card. Students may also pay with check or cash at the register as they go through the meal line. 

 

The superintendent may develop administrative guidelines to implement this policy.


 

Inactive Lunch Accounts

 

A lunch account becomes inactive after student withdrawal from school. An inactive lunch account that has a positive balance of $5.00 or less may be receipted back into the school lunch donation fund where the School Lunch Program funds are maintained. An inactive lunch account that has a nominal negative account balance of $5.00 or less may be offset against the positive balances in the Fund; provided, however, that if the parent requests and can document entitlement to the positive balance in the account within six months from the date the student becomes inactive, the parent is entitled to a refund of that amount.


 

Western Wayne Schools

 

Adopted: 02.14.24

 

Revised: 02.14.24

Revised: 12.10.25