Davidson County Schools in hot water with parents over student fee policies

The Davidson County School district is facing backlash from parents and other community members after reinstating policies requiring the payment of lunch and other fees, which restricts students from receiving meals or participating in extracurricular activities.

According to the Davidson County School Board handbook, high school students are not allowed to charge meals to their school account, meaning they will not be able to receive a meal if they have a zero balance. It also states students are required to pay all instructional fees, such as library fines, graduation dues and other accrued charges, to participate in extra-curricular activities.

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Elementary and middle school students are allowed to charge up to $12.75 in meals before contacting the student’s parents for payment.

The Davidson County School district said in a written statement that these policies have been in effect for several years but were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools were allocated federal funding to provide free lunches for students for the past two years during the pandemic, but this funding was not renewed this year.

“Understanding that the USDA universally free meals program provided to all students for the previous two years would no longer be in effect, beginning in July 2022 we communicated this shift to parents on several occasions. These communications encouraged families to apply for free/reduced meal benefits due to federal school nutrition guidelines that do not allow students to carry a negative balance on their school meal accounts,” said the statement from Davidson County Schools. 

District representatives said schools used the first quarter of the school year to prepare parents, students and staff for the re-implementation of the policy in the second quarter starting Nov. 1. But during this time, meal charges escalated quickly causing “concern for school administrators”.

“If a student is not eligible for benefits, there must be some form of payment each and every day. If the student cannot pay for the meal, since no charges are allowed per federal guidelines, the school must have a financial means to cover the charge,” said the written statement from the school district.

Previous reports stated school nutritional personnel would “throw away” the student's meal if they didn’t have the money on hand to cover its cost, causing a flurry of complaints on social media from the parents and the community. The school district said they are correcting this directive.

“Admittedly, discarding food as a means of addressing this complex issue was not the correct approach, and we regret that it was not considered more carefully before being communicated to child nutrition staff. It is not the expectation that meals will be thrown away; prior to the COVID-19 pandemic universally free benefits, our high schools were able to successfully implement this same policy,” said the written statement from Davidson County Schools.

More:Davidson County schools sees decline in performance two-years after disruption by COVID-19 pandemic

Davidson County Schools also has a policy which requires students to pay school fees before they can participate in extracurricular events, which could include dances, parking passes or even graduation.

According to the school district, there are options available for families struggling to pay for student accounts, including free/reduced meal applications and the “backpack programs” which send non-perishable items home with students from households with food insecurities.

The Davidson County Schools District said they are always welcoming “angel funds” from citizens who wish to donate money to assist with covering student costs.

In October, Holly Green who has children in the Davidson County School District, started a Go Fund Me page to raise money to help parents pay overdue debts so students can enjoy after-school and extracurricular events.

“A child should never be held accountable for something that should be their parent’s responsibility. Excluding a child based on something that is completely out of their control just isn’t right. I understand completely that nothing is free, and the school is only doing what they have to but let’s keep the financial aspect where it needs to be, 100% the parents’ responsibility! Let’s let kids be kids,” said Green on the fundraiser page.

She has currently raised approximately $1,500 in funds which will go to individual schools, starting in the Tyro and West Davidson area. The Go Fund Me page is here.

The Davidson County Schools said they are committed to reviewing the school no-charge policy, which was adopted in 2011, and reinstating some of the previous policies and considering other recommendations.

“In Davidson County Schools we take pride in our school nutrition service and make it a priority to feed all children... (Our) goal is balancing a no-charge policy expectation by USDA with the goal of ensuring all children have the opportunity for access to a healthy meal during the school day.  We are always willing to work with families and students in a variety of ways to make sure our students are fed,” said the statement from Davidson County Schools.

This article originally appeared on The Dispatch: Davidson County Schools in hot water with parents over student fee debts