Don't Have Your Lunch Money? 1 Pennsylvania School District Threatens Foster Care

[Muda69]

ttps://www.npr.org/2019/07/22/744005587/dont-have-your-lunch-money-one-pennsylvania-school-district-threatening-foster-c

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Dozens of families in Pennsylvania received an alarming letter from their public school district this month informing parents that if their kid's lunch debt was not settled, their child could be removed from their home and placed in the foster care.

Wyoming Valley West School District, one of the poorest districts in the state as measured by per-pupil spending, is located in a former coal mining community in Northeastern Pennsylvania, known affectionately by locals as "the valley."

When officials there noticed that families owed the district around $22,000 in breakfast and lunch debt, they tried to get their money back.

"By mail, email, robo calls, personal calls and letters," said Joseph Mazur, the president of the district's board of education.

But, Mazur said, nothing worked.

That's when district officials sent out the now-infamous letter to about 40 families deemed to be the worst offenders in having overdue cafeteria bills — those were children with a meal debt of $10 or more.

"Your child has been sent to school every day without money and without a breakfast and/or lunch," said the letter signed by Joseph Muth, director of federal programs for the Wyoming Valley West School District. "This is a failure to provide your child with proper nutrition and you can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child's right to food. If you are taken to Dependency court, the result may be your child being removed from your home and placed in foster care."

Not all local officials endorsed the move. County officials criticized the threat of foster-care placement, pointing out that the foster-care system should be used only when children are abused or in danger, not as a weapon to collect money.

But in an interview with NPR on Sunday, Mazur defended the letter.

"I think you have to pay your bills. I mean, I've been paying my bills all my life. So has everybody else. I mean sometimes you have to do without something for yourself if you want to raise your kids and see that they're taken care of," Mazur said.

The $22,000 owed is a fraction of the school district's $80 million annual budget, but Mazur said times are tough for Wyoming Valley West.

"We are in the process of trying to save money wherever we can. We have laid off some employees. We have reduced some of our curriculum. And we're looking anywhere we can save," Mazur said. "I don't care if it's $1,000 or $20,000."

Mazur emphasized that despite some students not having enough money to afford breakfast and lunch, the school district still fed all children.

"Every poor kid got a meal," Mazur said. "If the Board of Directors was mean and cruel they'd just honestly say, 'stop the lunches,' but we didn't."

Nothing like good 'ole local government using scare tactics.   It probably won't work.

 

[Wabash82]

18 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

ttps://www.npr.org/2019/07/22/744005587/dont-have-your-lunch-money-one-pennsylvania-school-district-threatening-foster-c

Nothing like good 'ole local government using scare tactics.   It probably won't work.

 

Wow, this is pretty low. The parents paying off the debt after the fact does not somehow change the fact that they (apparently) sent their kids to school on those prior occasions without breakfast or lunch, or the means to buy it. So if the school system truly believes that this failure by the parents was evidence of possible neglect,  the school system should report the parents to child welfare authorities -- and, indeed, may well have a legal duty to do so -- regardless of whether the parents later settle their debts to the school system. 

Which means the school system is either lying in its supposed view of the parents' (alleged) failures to feed their kids or send them with money to buy breakfast/lunch, or it is willing to use the welfare of these children as leverage in an "extortion" effort. ("We won't rat you out for neglecting your kids if you pay up.")

[Muda69]

30 minutes ago, Wabash82 said:

Wow, this is pretty low. The parents paying off the debt after the fact does not somehow change the fact that they (apparently) sent their kids to school on those prior occasions without breakfast or lunch, or the means to buy it. So if the school system truly believes that this failure by the parents was evidence of possible neglect,  the school system should report the parents to child welfare authorities -- and, indeed, may well have a legal duty to do so -- regardless of whether the parents later settle their debts to the school system. 

Which means the school system is either lying in its supposed view of the parents' (alleged) failures to feed their kids or send them with money to buy breakfast/lunch, or it is willing to use the welfare of these children as leverage in an "extortion" effort. ("We won't rat you out for neglecting your kids if you pay up.")

Agreed.  And one would assume that PA has the same kind of federal free/reduced lunch program that Indiana has?  If so why are these parents not signing up for said program?  Heck 75% of the children in the Community Schools of Frankfort, Indiana get free or reduced lunches.  And every child in the district can have a free breakfast if they want it.

FTA:

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Since the poverty level among students has risen in the district recently, new federal nutrition assistance is expected district-wide to cover meals for all students, regardless of their family's economic means.

Mazur said that new support should stay in place for the next five years, and he is hoping the letter controversy will soon be put to rest.

"I think this whole thing has just been blown out of proportion," Mazur said.

Nothing like the feds to bail you out.