Biometrics Alert! School Lunch Program Scans Students Thumb Prints for Tracking Purposes
Hazleton Area to offer all students free lunch
Published: June 17, 2015
Come September, all students in the Hazleton Area School District will be offered free lunch.
The district will join select major city districts, such as Boston, that now offer all students free lunch as part of a federal initiative to provide better nutrition for children, particularly those at high risk of malnutrition.
In 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The program was designed to improve a nutritional safety net for children falling through the cracks of the program that was already in place, according the program’s website.
In order to receive free or reduced priced lunches, parents must fill out an eligibility form. Because in some homes, parents cannot read materials sent home in English, and in other households, parents may choose not to read the materials or just plain ignore them, the USDA concluded that millions of children eligible and in need of free lunches, simply were not getting them.
The agency’s conclusion was that is better to provide free lunches to all children, since this approach would assure that every needy child gets a lunch.
Of course, participation in this initiative is entirely up to school districts. There is no obligation to participate.
“We will at least break even, if not come out ahead because of federal reimbursement,” Craig Butler, superintendent of the Hazleton Area School District, said.
While it would seem that providing all children with lunch would cost districts more, the pilot federal initiative turns that assumption on its ear. The initiative encourages school districts to move toward full participation by providing districts with reimbursements that will in fact absorb the cost of providing lunch to students of all income levels, whether they walk to school — or if a chauffeur drives them.
Last year, the Hazleton Area School District invested in biometric software to track the usage of the program by students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches. Students’ thumbprints were scanned each time they received a lunch. This data provided by the biometrics was made available to the district and federal government for tracking purposes.
Butler is unsure about the future of using the biometrics given the district’s participation in the initiative, which was first discussed by the school board in the spring, and adopted as the school year concluded.
The act increased funds for the new standards for federally subsidized school lunches, increasing funding also for breakfasts and after-school snacks in high-risk school districts.
Additionally, it now allows for the assessment of a nutritionally high-risk area based on census data rather than applications submitted to a district.
Free breakfasts for all, for the time being, will not be a part of Hazleton’s participation in this initiative, according to Butler.
mjacketti@standardspeaker.com
570-455-3636
Source
The district will join select major city districts, such as Boston, that now offer all students free lunch as part of a federal initiative to provide better nutrition for children, particularly those at high risk of malnutrition.
In 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The program was designed to improve a nutritional safety net for children falling through the cracks of the program that was already in place, according the program’s website.
In order to receive free or reduced priced lunches, parents must fill out an eligibility form. Because in some homes, parents cannot read materials sent home in English, and in other households, parents may choose not to read the materials or just plain ignore them, the USDA concluded that millions of children eligible and in need of free lunches, simply were not getting them.
The agency’s conclusion was that is better to provide free lunches to all children, since this approach would assure that every needy child gets a lunch.
Of course, participation in this initiative is entirely up to school districts. There is no obligation to participate.
“We will at least break even, if not come out ahead because of federal reimbursement,” Craig Butler, superintendent of the Hazleton Area School District, said.
While it would seem that providing all children with lunch would cost districts more, the pilot federal initiative turns that assumption on its ear. The initiative encourages school districts to move toward full participation by providing districts with reimbursements that will in fact absorb the cost of providing lunch to students of all income levels, whether they walk to school — or if a chauffeur drives them.
Last year, the Hazleton Area School District invested in biometric software to track the usage of the program by students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches. Students’ thumbprints were scanned each time they received a lunch. This data provided by the biometrics was made available to the district and federal government for tracking purposes.
Butler is unsure about the future of using the biometrics given the district’s participation in the initiative, which was first discussed by the school board in the spring, and adopted as the school year concluded.
The act increased funds for the new standards for federally subsidized school lunches, increasing funding also for breakfasts and after-school snacks in high-risk school districts.
Additionally, it now allows for the assessment of a nutritionally high-risk area based on census data rather than applications submitted to a district.
Free breakfasts for all, for the time being, will not be a part of Hazleton’s participation in this initiative, according to Butler.
mjacketti@standardspeaker.com
570-455-3636
Source
