A Pennsylvania public school district sent out dozens of letters earlier this month, telling parents who had unpaid lunch debt that their children could be taken away from them and placed in foster care.
The Wyoming Valley West School District distributed about 1,000 letters to students who had $10 or more in meal debt. All told, school district officials said families owed the district $22,000 in breakfast and lunch payments.
“Your child has been sent to school every day without money and without a breakfast and/or lunch,” the letter read. “This is a failure to provide your child with proper nutrition and you can be sent to Dependency Court for neglecting your child’s right to food. If you are taken to Dependency court, the result may be your child being removed from your home and placed in foster care.”
Joseph Muth signed the letter, who is the director of federal programs for the Wyoming Valley West School District.
Muth told CNN affiliate WNEP the letter was meant as a “last resort” and that the district was contemplating serving students with overdue accounts peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. WNEP reported four accounts showed families that owed more than $450 each.
Joseph Mazur, the president of the district’s board of education, said officials tried to reclaim the owed debts “by mail, email, robo calls, personal calls and letters,” but to no avail.
Facing criticism from county officials for threatening foster care to incentivize payments, Mazur defended the letter in an interview with NPR on Sunday.
“I think you have to pay your bills. I mean, I’ve been paying my bills all my life. So has everybody else. I mean, sometimes you have to do without something for yourself if you want to raise your kids and see that they’re taken care of,” Mazur said.
Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey called the letters “callous” in a tweet on Friday.
“No child should have to imagine the horror of being ripped away from their parents because their family is struggling economically,” Casey wrote.
No child should have to imagine the horror of being ripped away from their parents because their family is struggling economically. These letters were callous and should never have happened. https://t.co/TVbsh2XIRy
— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) July 19, 2019
Bill Vinsko, a lawyer in northeastern Pennsylvania, noted that families in the region around the school district struggle to make ends meet on low-paying jobs on top of a fragile tax base that puts a strain on schools.
“And then they get a letter saying their kids might be taken away from them; it’s petrifying for them,” Vinsko said. “That is really scary for parents who are trying to work for the best interest of their kids.”
Wyoming Valley West School District is among the most poverty-stricken districts in Pennsylvania as calculated by per-pupil spending.
But Mazur stated that the $22,000 owed could go a long way to ease the financial burden on the school district.
“We are in the process of trying to save money wherever we can,” Mazur said. “We have laid off some employees. We have reduced some of our curriculum. And we’re looking anywhere we can save. I don’t care if it’s $1,000 or $20,000.”
