By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman notes that even though, thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, lunches for kids for the upcoming school year are free, districts in Kansas still need the information that would normally come from the free and reduced lunch application.
"The state department of education has come out with what they call a Home Economic Survey," said Couchman. "They call it the HES for short, that schools are to give our community and our student's families to replace the free and reduced meal application."
There are some questions on that survey that they are required to answer.
"It's so important that we have our families fill those questions out," Couchman said. "Those questions are different. Instead of giving us a range, they have to answer two very specific questions. One of them is how many students are under your household, the next question is, how much is your household income?"
Those can be tough questions to answer if you have a variable income and are not prepared for them, so Couchman is considering speaking to her administrators about strategies they can use to get more parents to fill out the new form.
"If you qualify using the Home Economic Survey, it used to be the free and reduced application, you have lower enrollment fees, you have lower technology fees, our Cares Club and Shining Stars programs, which is our after school care program and then also our in school program for pre-k, those are reduced," Couchman said. "The food backpack program that we send food home on Fridays with, that's also based upon that. Then, we also use that information to help in other areas, if the families give permission to share it. You can get like, internet access fees reduced through the emergency broadband benefit, there's childcare credit. It just keeps going on and on in how we use it. The main thing that helps us right now, that benefits the school district and in turnaround, really does benefit our families, is it's how our federal at-risk dollars are figured."
That money helps fund counselor salaries and paraprofessionals as well as class size reduction and the pre-k program.