School Nutrition

Unpaid Meal Charges Policy

Meal Charge Policy:

Twin Falls School District encourages and allows students to receive the nutrition they need to stay focused during the school day, minimize identification of children with insufficient funds to pay for meals and maintain the financial integrity of the nonprofit school food service account.

Twin Falls School District policy allows students to charge all available reimbursable meals.

Students who qualify for free meals may never be denied a meal, even if they have accrued a negative balance from other purchases in the cafeteria.

School Food Authority’s unpaid meal charges are considered “delinquent debt” and SFA must make reasonable efforts to collect meal charges, without negatively impacting the students involved, but instead, focusing on the adults responsible for providing funds for meal purchases.

• Once a week an email will go out informing parents of their student’s lunch account balance. Parents with a negative balance will also receive an automated phone call. This will all be done at the district level. Schools are allowed to send letters/ notes home with students regarding lunch balances as long as it is done in a discrete manner.
• Once a student’s account reaches a negative balance of $10.00, the kitchen staff from the school will make a personal phone call to the parent. At the High School level administrators may meet with students to discuss balances. Balances will be checked one a week and weekly phone calls will continue until step three is reached.
• Once a student’s account reaches a negative balance of $30.00, a letter will be sent on district letterhead and will request that the parent contact the school to set up a conference with the kitchen manager with the goal of setting up a payment plan designed to resolve the balance.
• Once a student’s account reaches a negative balance of $50.00, and the parent has demonstrated the plan is not going to be followed (or fails to respond); the account may be turned over to a collection agency. This will be left to the discretion of the Food Service Director and they will take into consideration whether the benefits of potential collections outweigh the costs incurred to achieve those collections.

Reclassifying Delinquent Debt as Bad Debt:

When local officials determine delinquent debt is uncollectable and no further collection efforts will be made by SFA, the debt must be reclassified as “bad debt”.

NSLP and SBP regulations require SFAs to “comply with the requirements to account for all revenues and expenditures of the nonprofit school food service” and to “meet the requirements for the allowability of the nonprofit school food service expenditures in accordance with his part and 2 CFR 200, Subpart E 7 CFR 210.19(a)(1) and 7 CFR 220.12(i). Therefore, expenditures from the NSFSA must meet the standards for allowable costs set out in the Federal cost principals at 2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E.

Section 200.426 of the subpart states “Bad debts (debts which have been determined to be uncollectable), including losses (whether actual or estimated) arising from uncollectable accounts and other claims, are unallowable. Related collection costs, and related legal costs, arising from such debts after they have been determined to be uncollectable are also unallowable. Bad Debt status may not be absorbed by the NSFSA.

NSFSA must be restored using non-Federal funds. These funds may come from: the school district’s general fund.

Once delinquent debts are converted to bad debts, ( end of school operating year) records relating to those charges will be turned over to the school district for collection procedures and must be maintained in accordance with the record retention requirements outlined in 7CFR 210.9(b)(17) and 7 CFR 210.15(b). The following records should be maintained to document the appropriate establishment and handling of bad debt:

• Evidence of efforts to collect unpaid meal charges in accordance with the State and local unpaid meal charge policy
• Evidence the collection efforts fell within the timeframe and methods established by the State or Local meal charge policy
• Financial documentation showing when the unpaid meal charge(s) became an operating loss and
• Evidence any funds written off as bad debt were restored to the NSFSA using non-federal resources

Twin Falls School District’s Policy

• At no time will students have identifying marks, stickers, etc. signifying that they owe money.
• Students will not be denied lunch due to negative balances
• Students will not be given an alternate meal in replace of the day’s reimbursable meal due to negative balances.
• Students will not be limited to a number of charges or a type of meal.

Policy applies consistently for all age/grade groups.

SFA will not charge a la carte or extra items (e.g., a second milk or additional entrée) by any students with a negative balance regardless of the student’s eligibly status, but may not deny the student a reimbursable meal.

The meal charge policy must be communicated to all school or district-level staff responsible for the policy enforcement. All families must receive the policy, in writing.

Policy will be reviewed on an annual basis.

In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDA-OASCR%20P-Complaint-Form-0508-0002-508-11-28-17Fax2Mail.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:

1. mail:
   U.S. Department of Agriculture
   Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
   1400 Independence Avenue, SW
   Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or
2. fax:
   (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or
3. email:
   program.intake@usda.gov

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.