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The letter, which was reviewed by CNN, told parents that there have been “multiple letters sent home with your child” and that no payments had been made.
“Your child has been sent to school every day without money and without a breakfast and/or lunch,” the letter read. It also said failure to provide children with food could result in parents being sent to Dependency Court.
“If you are taken to Dependency court, the result may be your child being removed from your home and placed in foster care,” the letter read.
CNN has reached out to Wyoming Valley West School District, but has not heard back.
School division says its owed more than $22,000
Muth also told the affiliate the school district was considering serving students with delinquent accounts peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
‘To weaponize my agency was just outrageous’
Joanne Van Saun, who runs the local agency, told CNN on Saturday she feels her agency was weaponized to threaten families.
“We exist to protect and preserve families. The only time a child is taken out is when they cannot be maintained safely in their home,” she said. “Our agency has helped many children and families with paying rent and buying clothes. We know children do better when they’re with their families.”
Van Saun said the district’s letter made her staff’s job harder because people are usually already angry when they have to deal with her agency.
“We’re really there to help, and not destroy, their family,” she said.
Van Saun did say the relationship between her agency and the school district is usually a good one, but she felt “blindsided” by the letter.
“The way they handled it was totally inappropriate, unnecessary and could’ve easily been resolved through so many different avenues,” she said.
In a letter to the district’s superintendent, Van Saun wrote, “The Luzerne County Children and Youth Foster Care System is NOT utilized to scare families into paying school lunch bills.”
‘Lunch shaming’ hits the headlines
The Pennsylvania district isn’t the first state to face accusations of what’s become known as “lunch shaming.”
Families’ inability to pay for school lunches is becoming an increasing problem.
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