Sylvania Schools
POLICY: MEAL CHARGING and UNPAID MEAL CHARGES
School Year: 2025 – 2026

Overview: Students are only allowed to charge one (1) reimbursable full breakfast and one (1) full reimbursable lunch per day if they do not have money on their meal account. Charges/negative balances (‘charge’- to be/go negative) must be paid. NO a la carte items/extras such as chips, soda, extra pizza, etc. can be charged.

Meal accounts:  In an attempt to make certain no student goes without breakfast or lunch, the system allows students to charge full meals and carry a balance. A la carte items cannot be charged. We will not take food from a child in the lunch line. We feed students and settle financial matters with parents/guardians later. Monthly emails are sent to the email address provided to us for any lunch account balance that is in arrears (meaning negative accounts).
Parents/guardians must keep an updated email address/mailing address on file with the school district.

All school fees and lunch account balances, including money owed, is housed in your My School Bucks account and can be paid there, OR the negative lunch account balance can be paid by sending money with the student to the school cafeteria. My School Bucks can also be used to check your student's account activity and set up low balance notifications.

Meal account balances – COURTESY NOTIFICATIONS are sent out periodically if a
student’s lunch account balance has a negative balance at/near -$5.00 in arrears (negative) or at our discretion/when we deem necessary. If the account is not brought current, the charges remain on the lunch account until paid to the lunch account. NOTE: If negative balances are not paid before graduation or when/if a student transfers out of the district, grades are redacted from transcripts.
Any food purchased is the financial responsibility of the parent/guardian.

Charging is for emergencies – The meal account charge system is required by the State of Ohio. It is intended to be used for the occasional time when a child does not have funds in their meal account or does not have money with them. This is NOT a revolving charge account, like a store credit card would be, and the meal account balance is the responsibility of the parent or guardian. The meal account MUST have money on the account or the student must have cash to purchase meals. We cannot turn a student away without food, therefore, the student will be fed if they have no funds/cash or food with them and we will be forced to charge the account. The student must have enough funds to pay for their food as we are obligated to feed students.