Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 21:58     Subject: Re:Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:School counselor here. I don't always know, but appreciate being told, because I can then try to help families get items like free school pictures and free yearbooks and get free after school activities and field trips. I would never share that info with anyone other than the financial secretary who sends the invoices. In the course of getting to know my students, I often make educated guesses. It can be tricky to offer help unless you are sure it would be welcomed. The last thing I would want to do is embarrass a family. Please apply for the free and reduced meals and ease the burden on the family. Your child will benefit from the reduced stress at home as well as the food.


OP here.

Thank you. This was a hard decision for us (applying.) We have elementary aged children and middle school aged kids. The older ones are a bit embarrassed. The youngest elementary aged child happens to have a teacher who is a mom--and her children are in the same class as some of my older kids--which was part of my concern of "who knows which children are on free lunch."

Right now, in an effort to "make up" for accepting the free food, I am volunteering as much as possible. I always made an effort to volunteer before (I am a "room mom" for one of the classes) but I am trying to do even more now.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 21:41     Subject: Re:Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
School counselor here. I don't always know, but appreciate being told, because I can then try to help families get items like free school pictures and free yearbooks and get free after school activities and field trips. I would never share that info with anyone other than the financial secretary who sends the invoices. In the course of getting to know my students, I often make educated guesses. It can be tricky to offer help unless you are sure it would be welcomed. The last thing I would want to do is embarrass a family. Please apply for the free and reduced meals and ease the burden on the family. Your child will benefit from the reduced stress at home as well as the food.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 21:33     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:Hungry children COULD get food to eat if their parents prioritized more effectively. Take up your beef with them. Period.


About 31 million children get lunch through the Free and Reduced Meals program. I'm surprised that you know so much about the decisions and priorities of each of their parents.

And, even assuming you're right about the parents' decisions and priorities, I'm wondering how you think it would work if you ended this program. Would the parents all suddenly make different decisions and have different priorities? Or would the children just go hungry? (Would it bother you if the children just went hungry?)
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 21:10     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:
School staff, admin can all access this info.

And the PTA, since it makes up funds for field trips and extras when parents can't pay...

Really, there is precious little privacy if you're nosy enough.

One reason I don't encourage too much parent involvement in school.


Legally the info cannot be disclosed to the PTA. The PTA can be asked for fees to cover X number of children, but they cannot be told which students they are. Additionally, when PTA's run after school programs, they are not allowed to get that info from the school - they must ask the parents to use the honor system as there's no way to "prove" they are FRM because the PTA cannot ask for. and the school cannot provide that info.

Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 20:30     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:Hungry children COULD get food to eat if their parents prioritized more effectively. Take up your beef with them. Period.


If we did that the kids would probably starve. Anyone who is against feeding innocent kids is gross.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 20:28     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:Hungry children COULD get food to eat if their parents prioritized more effectively. Take up your beef with them. Period.


You are an ugly person
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 20:25     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Hungry children COULD get food to eat if their parents prioritized more effectively. Take up your beef with them. Period.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 20:11     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:"Oh absolutely. It's an unfair burden on the taxpayers to subsidize the lunches of children in poor neighborhoods. Because it's not like proper nutrition is linked to better academic performance or anything."


Anonymous wrote:"Oh I'm sorry. It looks like you've mistakenly directed that statement to the taxpayer. What you really meant was to direct it to PARENTS who need to get rid of the iPhones and crack and be responsible for raising their children.


If you're trying to make sure that hungry children get food to eat, so that they can learn at school, then free and reduced meals at school are actually quite effective.

They're very ineffective, though, if you're trying to make children suffer for unwisely picking the wrong (poor) parents.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 19:33     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:No one. It is completely confidential at the school.


Bull. Everybody knows. Everyone.


Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 18:01     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:
School staff, admin can all access this info.

And the PTA, since it makes up funds for field trips and extras when parents can't pay...

Really, there is precious little privacy if you're nosy enough.

One reason I don't encourage too much parent involvement in school.


Oh. Good point about the PTA and field trips. We actually had already pre-paid for all field trips for the rest of this school year before our situation got so bad...so won't be asking for any assistance with field trip costs, musical instrument rentals, etc. I hope over the summer our situation will improve and this will not even be an issue in the fall.

And thank you to the PP earlier in the thread for your kind and supportive words.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 17:57     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:About 90% of the children at the school where I teach are FARMS. So, we pretty much all know.


Holy cow. Where the hell is this?


There are several local schools with this FARMs rate. Why so surprised?


Because that's an incredible (and unfair) burden on the taxpayers.


So, let's redistribute some wealth! I think YOU can make it on $50k a year. Can I sign you up to donate the rest to relieve the poor taxpayers?


No, you have it backwards. The American taxpayer has had enough. You bleeding hearts can form your own charity for this. Everyone wins.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 17:45     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?

School staff, admin can all access this info.

And the PTA, since it makes up funds for field trips and extras when parents can't pay...

Really, there is precious little privacy if you're nosy enough.

One reason I don't encourage too much parent involvement in school.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 17:42     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:About 90% of the children at the school where I teach are FARMS. So, we pretty much all know.


Holy cow. Where the hell is this?


There are several local schools with this FARMs rate. Why so surprised?


Because that's an incredible (and unfair) burden on the taxpayers.


So, let's redistribute some wealth! I think YOU can make it on $50k a year. Can I sign you up to donate the rest to relieve the poor taxpayers?
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 17:34     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
Anonymous wrote:"Oh absolutely. It's an unfair burden on the taxpayers to subsidize the lunches of children in poor neighborhoods. Because it's not like proper nutrition is linked to better academic performance or anything."

Oh I'm sorry. It looks like you've mistakenly directed that statement to the taxpayer. What you really meant was to direct it to PARENTS who need to get rid of the iPhones and crack and be responsible for raising their children.


I feel sorry for your children. It's really a shame that they are being raised by someone like you.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2014 17:20     Subject: Who in the school knows which students are on the free lunch program?
"Oh absolutely. It's an unfair burden on the taxpayers to subsidize the lunches of children in poor neighborhoods. Because it's not like proper nutrition is linked to better academic performance or anything."

Oh I'm sorry. It looks like you've mistakenly directed that statement to the taxpayer. What you really meant was to direct it to PARENTS who need to get rid of the iPhones and crack and be responsible for raising their children.