The Iowa legislature now requires school districts to implement a meal charge policy for school breakfast and lunch.

West Central Valley recently adopted changes to their already existing policy. Superintendent Dr. David Arnold talks about the important part of the policy.

“There are families that do pay for their lunches. There’s limits as to how far they can go in the hole. Our limit is $25. We can’t let them go too far without paying the debt. We do provide them (the students) something to eat, the kids will not go hungry.”

He adds that they do notify parents on a regular basis if a student’s account is delinquent.

“We notify them weekly with updates as to where their accounts stand. We make calls home from the school to the parents to let them know that they’re going into the hole a little too far.”

Historically, Dr. Arnold says they haven’t had too many issues with parents paying any debt for their child to eat a breakfast or a lunch provided by the school district.