Students unable to pay for meals at the time of meal service are allowed to charge breakfast and lunch. Students charging breakfast and/or lunch will receive reimbursable meals. Charging meals is a courtesy extended only to students, and a la carte (extra) items may not be charged.  

Once a student has accrued unpaid meal charges of any amount, parents/guardians will receive a generated phone call, email, and/or text message through the school district’s automated system. Once unpaid meal charges reach $25.00, letters will be sent to the home address of the student’s parent/guardian.   

Unpaid meal charges are considered bad debt at the end of each current school year. The Director of School Nutrition compiles and reports all unpaid meal charges as bad debt to the Knox County Schools finance office for reimbursement from the General Purpose School Fund. Bad debt may be referred to a collection agent retained by Knox County Schools for such purpose. The Director of Schools has established in procedure a reasonable threshold for the level of debt to be referred for collection as follows:

• Bad debt accrued by any student receiving free or reduced price meal benefits during the current school year is not referred for collection.
• Bad debt, cumulatively by family, less than $25.00 is not referred for collection.
• Bad debt without prior written notification of unpaid meal charges to the household is not referred for collection.