Lincoln Public Schools stops sending lunch debts to collection agency

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Lincoln Public Schools is changing how it handles unpaid lunch tabs.

The district announced Thursday that it has stopped referring families to a debt collection agency.

The decision came a week after the Flatwater Free Press reported that LPS used a private collector to recoup overdue lunch debts.

LPS is also recalling all current accounts with the collection agency.

The Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools will work with the district’s nutrition services to use donations to address outstanding debts.

Currently, once a student’s meal account balance goes negative, families receive an “automatic communication via phone and email,” LPS said.

The debt would be sent to a collection agency if the account stayed at negative $50 or more for over 30 days.

“We would begin communicating with that family about the possibility that we would be referring them to an outside collection firm,” said Liz Standish, LPS associate superintendent of business affairs.

Students with a zero or negative balance would still receive a full regular meal, the district said.

The school board asked staff to review the district’s policies after Legislative Bill 855 was introduced in the Nebraska Legislature this year.

If passed by lawmakers, it would prohibit school districts from using collection agencies to collect school lunch debts.

“Sen. Conrad’s bill, LB 855, was absolutely part of the conversation with the board,” Standish said. “Part of it is we would need to be prepared to make that change, and truly our board was looking to make that change.”

On Tuesday, the school board will consider changes to the district’s school debt policies.

LPS outlined its new proposed procedures in a press release:

• Negative account balances will no longer be sent to collections. LPS staff will follow up with families in an effort to collect funds. Families can set up their own payment system using My School Bucks.

• Families will still receive automatic phone and email messages twice a week until the negative meal balance is resolved. The communication will include a link to the federal Free and Reduced meal application.

• Once the student’s meal balance reaches negative $200, the family will receive a letter with information about the federal Free and Reduced meal application, an LPS staff member to contact if the family experienced a change in circumstance and the student now qualifies for Free or Reduced meals, and a person to contact if the family has experienced a hardship and is in need of assistance or a connection to resources.

• LPS will transfer a negative balance that is three school years old from the My School Bucks system to the student’s Synergy account and pay the nutrition services department from the general fund.

• LPS staff will work with families to find resources and solutions to pay negative balances and reach out to other school districts to learn best practices.

• LPS will continue trying to expand the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) to provide free meals to as many students as possible. Currently, LPS has eight elementary schools that qualify as CEP schools.