By all accounts, the $307.10 in unpaid lunch balances Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors voted to write off Monday night wasn’t an eye-popping amount.

In fact, it was significantly less than last year’s LASD lunch balance write-off of $1,430.05.

But of the four overdue balances that made up the 2021-22 total, one student account made up $284 of it.

“That’s most likely an accumulation of several years,” LASD Business Manager Edward Rarick said. “There are stipulations that you can’t take lunch away from a child, no matter how much is owed. It comes down to does the board want to start taking parents to the magistrate for unpaid lunches?”

The answer on Monday night was a resounding no.

“While it frustrates me that we had a student walk away with that amount owed on the account, this dollar figure is probably not worth dealing with the headache of taking someone to the magistrate for a judgment,” Director Nathan Foeller said.

Lehighton votes each year on writing off unpaid balances for students who either graduated the previous June or are otherwise not returning to the district in the fall.

A 2017 state law prohibits schools from denying a school food program meal to any student who requests one but does not have the money to pay for the meal at the time. Schools also can’t publicly identify or stigmatize students because they have a school meal debt.

“There was a time when cashiers used to tell students if they had balances when they went through the lunch line,” LASD High School Principal Sue Howland. “After the lunch shaming laws came out though, all that communication has to be done with parents.”

Lehighton officials said its business office does send letters to parents and contact them by phone to let them know of overdue amounts.

According to the LASD’s policy on the matter, “reasonable efforts shall be made by the district to collect unpaid meal charges from parents/guardians. Efforts taken in the collection shall not have a negative impact on the student involved, but shall focus primarily on the parents/guardians responsible for providing funds for meal purchases.”

Most of the time, Howland said, debt is accumulated when students purchase a la carte items or extras beyond the regular lunch offering.

Under state law, districts can take away student privileges for unpaid meals as long as it is the same policy for other debts, such as overdue books.

“We don’t take away graduation or anything like that,” Howland said.

Districts across the state are dealing with unpaid lunch debts in a variety of different manners. Quakertown Community School District adopted a controversial policy in 2019 to issue written notices to parents regarding a child’s lunch debt and restrict participation in extracurricular activities if the amount isn’t paid within 30 days. If the debt exceeds $1,000, it is turned over to a collection agency.

Wyoming Valley West School District made headlines in 2019 when a district official threatened parents who didn’t pay lunch balances with foster care.

“We don’t know each student’s individual situation,” LASD Board President Joy Beers said. “Withholding a lunch from someone is not something I’d want to do even if we were allowed to.”

A federal waiver allowing all Pennsylvania K-12 students automatic access to free school breakfast and lunch over the last two school years expired on June 30. Families meeting federal income eligibility guidelines can apply for free and reduced school meals. Lehighton’s free and reduced meal application can be found at https://bit.ly/3yBFWKK.