Brown County students with lunch debt are no longer receiving alternate meals. The school board recently decided to change the district's policy, which used to stipulate students with negative balances would receive a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in place of a regular lunch.
Like many districts in Indiana, Brown County decided to revisit its policy because of a U.S. Department of Agriculture mandate that lunch debt policies be put in writing. Under the district's new policy, students will all get the same meal – regardless of their ability to pay.
Superintendent Laura Hammack says the district will first try to recoup the debt by notifying parents via letter when a negative balance exceeds $10. The district will follow-up with phone calls if the debt isn't paid. Brown County schools will then cover the cost of any remaining deficit through donations or other families' leftover lunch money.
"Sometimes we have families that leave and we have no ability to reimburse the dollars that might be leftover in the account," she says. "We are going to be able to move those dollars over to the bad debt."
Hammack says the district only had $600 in lunch debt last year.