WA bans ‘lunch shaming’ — and school meal debts skyrocket
November 19, 2018
By Victor Skinner
States across the country are working to ensure no students go hungry if their school lunch accounts go negative, and it’s taking a toll on school budgets.
In Washington, the Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights approved earlier this year states:
School personnel, school district personnel, and volunteers are prohibited from taking any action that would publicly identify a student who cannot pay for a school meal or for meals previously served to the student, including requiring the student to wear an identifying marker or serving the student an alternative meal.
The new law, which took effect in June, is designed to end the practice known as “lunch shaming,†or holding students accountable when their lunch accounts run dry or go negative. In many schools, cafeteria workers replace hot lunches with an emergency meal – often a cold sandwich and milk – when students are unable to pay or reach a certain debt threshold, the News Tribune reports.
http://eagnews.org/wa-bans-lunch-shaming-and-school-meal-debts-skyrocket/
