FARMS & Confidentiality

[Anonymous]

Who at your ES has access to which families receive FARMS? Admin? Teachers? PTA? Asking because it doesn’t seem very confidential at my school (this is an observation / suspicion, not a substantiated fact), and I am wondering what the protocol is here. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Admin, not PTA, not teachers.

But it's not super confidential.

Sometimes kids tell their friends. Sometimes teachers find out when a parent asks for a waiver for a field trip fee. At some schools that don't have universal free breakfast but some kids will get free breakfast and everyone will know.

[Anonymous]

What are the ethics / standards for admin keeping the info confidential? It seemed to me at a school fundraiser that the PTA had access to this information, and it didn’t sit right with me.

[Anonymous]

Admin, school counselors, and maybe a few select teachers/staff who are needed to liaise with the PTA for annual food and holiday gift drives and to make sure these students can attend PTA events for free.

[Anonymous]

Definitely not pta. Possibly some teachers. We have an ESL teacher who is a liaison with a lot of new children at the school and she works with them to fill out paperwork and make sure they are getting everything they qualify for.

[Anonymous]

Pp again. Our pta funds some things for students (after school clubs, etc) on an as needed/requested basis. So the treasurer will know but we don't share that information among ourselves.

[Anonymous]

School counselors no longer have access to this information about students. This changed at my school about two years ago.

[Anonymous]

Seems to me like parent leaders should NOT have access to this information even if it makes things “easier.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pp again. Our pta funds some things for students (after school clubs, etc) on an as needed/requested basis. So the treasurer will know but we don't share that information among ourselves.

Baloney

[Anonymous]

There is no need for pta to know whom. If a treasurer needs to know, they can get a number of students who are whatever they are for funding purposes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me like parent leaders should NOT have access to this information even if it makes things “easier.”

Yet they do. Parents be shocked at how much an elementary school nosy loquouis PTA President or board know. They just walk up to the front office secretary/principal's secretary. They're going to come on here and say they are helping. These are some nosy ass ntches many many stories from volunteers over the years.

[Anonymous]

Farms is family income that families report. Admin only. Free lunch is a separate program but that is part of the income reporting.

[Anonymous]

Parents who suck up to their principal know.
Truth. Don't try to deny it, PTA parents!

[Anonymous]

I used to be a teacher in a Title 1 school. The only reason I ever knew that kid was on FARMS was if the parent asked for help filling out the form, or they asked me "do I need to fill this out if I know I'm not going to qualify".

I also knew if a kid was in foster care, since all foster kids qualify, or if a kid told me they ran out of money in their lunch account, since that would mean they were either full pay or reduced.

[Anonymous]

I think the crux of this is that the information may not be shared but it's not that difficult to figure it out...when the book fair happens and half the class gets a special voucher...all the other kids know and any parent volunteers involved in that see.

Even if info isn't shared, we all know. Also you could probably figure it out pretty easily from other data like test scores or general performance, English language skills etc.