Clayton might bill parents for kids’ school meals

Some Clayton County parents may soon end up with a bill for all of the school meals their children ate without paying.

The school district has already spent $112,633 this school year on courtesy meals for children, school nutrition director Audrey Hamilton said.

That bill will reach $200,000 by the end of the school year if the district doesn’t start collecting on those outstanding meal tabs, she said.

“The numbers were astounding,” school board member Pam Adamson said. “We just can’t afford to continue to feed these children.”

The Clayton board will vote Monday on a policy to send lunch bills home to parents. Most school districts already have such a policy.

The district is also considering giving milk and peanut butter and jelly or cheese sandwiches to students without money instead of providing a full meal.

About 77.5 percent of Clayton’s 50,000 students qualified at the beginning of the school year to receive free or reduced breakfast and lunch. That allows the school system to receive federal funds for those students’ meals, Hamilton said. But dozens of students not in the program show up daily without money or lunch.

Schools have been reluctant to turn away these children, said Joseph Jones, the district’s chief operations officer. Records show River’s Edge Elementary had the largest outstanding debt for the first semester at $11,626.

“Hungry people cannot learn,” Jones told the school board Monday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which pays for food for income-eligible students, said parents are responsible for meals given to children who don’t meet the free meals program guidelines, according to Hamilton.

Taxpayers will end up paying for the unpaid meals if parents don’t settle their accounts. The USDA will not inherit any of that debt, Hamilton said. That’s troublesome to the school board, which is already facing a loss of $23 million in state aid next year, along with less tax revenue because of foreclosed homes.