KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knox County Board of Education suspended a policy Thursday that would have allowed the board to hire debt collectors to go after parents of students with unpaid school lunches. When many parents learned about the policy, they spoke out against it.
The policy outlines steps for collecting meal debt. Those steps are listed below.
- The School Nutrition Director Department will notify the parent or guardian via the district’s communication system in writing of a student's unpaid account balance, and inquire as to whether the family would like to apply for free or reduced-price meals.
- If necessary, within two weeks, once a student’s balance exceeds $25.00, the School Nutrition Department the cafeteria manager will contact the parent or guardian in writing regarding the negative balance.by telephone to follow up on the written correspondence.
- If necessary, the school principal or the principal’s designee will contact the parent or guardian in writing or by telephone.
- The debt shall be referred to a collection agent (if available) retained by the Knox County Schools for such purpose. The Director of Schools shall establish in procedure a reasonable threshold for the level of debt to be referred for collection.
The board decided to suspend the final step of the policy.
Carly Harrington, a spokesperson with Knox County Schools, said that the board plans to discuss the policy at the next policy review committee meeting on March 24.
The Board of Education was set to vote on a contract with a collection agency on Thursday but did not vote since the policy requiring the contract was suspended.
The contract was in the works with a collection agency named "IC System Inc." The agency planned to get 21.5% of what they would collect.
Harrington said that as of Monday morning, the amount of unpaid meal debt was more than $205,000. She said this debt is so far from the 2022 to 2023 school year.
She also said hiring a collection agency is not a new idea. She said no accounts have been sent to collections since the end of the 2018-2019 school year. She said that at the end of the fiscal year, an analysis is done on unpaid meal debt to determine which students would be referred to the collection agency.
Between 2020 to 2022, there was no unpaid meal debt due to waivers from the federal government that ensured meals would be free.
The contract with IC System Inc. may have been extended for four additional years. Harrington said that "all students have access to meals regardless of ability to pay."
She also said that a typical student lunch costs $2.75 in elementary school, and $3 in middle school and high school. Breakfast costs $2, she said.
KCS also commented about the meal costs. Their statement is below.
Our Nutrition workers do an outstanding job every day providing breakfast and lunch meals to students. All students have access to meals regardless of ability to pay.