NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The failure of families who qualify for free and reduced lunch to fill out the paperwork in Buhler USD 313 had a significant impact on their budget this year.
"Through our audit we just got recently back, we lost over $100,000," said USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman. "That $100,000 has to be absorbed somewhere, because we kept our staff and we kept our opportunities for our students, but that money wasn't there this year."
Kansas uses the number of students eligible for free (but not reduced-price) lunch to determine the amount of funding school districts receive to provide for services to at-risk students.
"We're hoping to recapture some of that money next year, when families have to fill that form out," Couchman said. "It is part of our enrollment process, so we ask that everybody takes a look at that and fills that out. It will help us. We'll be talking about that, and I think every school district will be talking about it from now until August, in hopes that we hit one more person."
Eligibility for free and reduced-price meals is based in part on the incomes of families at various percentages of the poverty rate.