Ballooning unpaid school lunch debt hitting districts across South Dakota

A survey of school district administrators by The Dakota Scout finds meal debt is a worsening problem for many school systems; legislators working on solutions

The Sioux Falls School District isn’t alone when it comes to rapid increases in debt in its breakfast and lunch program.

School districts across the state are experiencing rising levels of unpaid meal debt as child nutrition programs return to pre-pandemic operations when financially-capable families are expected to pay for their children’s meals. Administrators and nutritionists in schools say the trend isn’t unique to any one district or school.

“The unpaid meal balance battle is present in nearly every school in the state,” Platte-Geddes Schools Superintendent Joel Bailey said this week after Sioux Falls made headlines by announcing it might turn students away from the lunch line due to exploding unpaid meal debts.

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That school district — the state’s largest — was on pace to for $400,000 in unpaid meal debt by the end of the school year when school administrators implemented its new policy: Students with debt won’t be able to receive a breakfast, and those with $20 in debt will receive milk and a snack for lunch. Those with $75 in debt won’t get a meal.

The shift brought a chorus of criticism, but educators say they don’t have a choice amid the burgeoning financial crunch that’s at least partly to blame on two years of free school lunches for every student.

NEWS: South Dakota's largest school district faced $400k in unpaid meal debt

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