The North Clackamas School District encourages every family to review the Oregon Department of Education Guidelines when applying for free and reduced meal benefits. Students will receive free or reduced priced meals if your household’s income is within the limits of the Federal Income Eligibility Guidelines.
2022-2023 Oregon Income Guidelines LINQ Connect Website
Free and Reduced Meal Benefits
Families who currently receive free or reduced meal benefits must submit a new meal application annually.
Meal applications can be submitted on or after July 1st.
Free and reduced applications should be submitted before school begins to ensure proper benefits are applied to your account. A letter explaining your benefits will be sent to you by mail. If you do not receive a letter confirming your benefit eligibility status, please contact:
freeandreduced@nclack.k12.or.us
- Families qualifying for SNAP, TANF, or FDPIR benefits and receive a NCSD Direct Certification approval letter to complete a meal application. If a confirmation letter is not received or students are missing in the notification, please call the North Clackamas School District Helpline at 503.353.6034 or email freeandreduced@nclack.k12.or.us
- Households with free or reduced eligibility from the previous school year will have a 30 day meal eligibility carryover at the start of the current school year.
- Free or reduced households that do not reapply within the first 30 days of school will lose free or reduced status. This change in status may result in charges on your student’s meal account. Parents or guardians are responsible for any meal charges incurred.
- If an application is submitted within the 30 day carryover period and is denied, carryover ends 10 calendar days after the application is processed.
- Students approved for free or reduced meals may receive; one complete breakfast and one complete lunch per school day at no cost. *Please note: A la carte milk purchases, (milk only) 50¢. If a student selects only milk, and not a complete meal, the student meal account will be charged 50¢.
Access to Meals
According to Oregon law, any student who requests a meal shall receive a meal. Households may be eligible to receive meals at no cost by applying for benefits through the Free and Reduced Meal Program. Meal applications can be submitted online via the LINQ Connect.
Oregon law specifies that when a student requests a meal during meal service, they shall receive a meal regardless of the ability to pay. For clarification purposes, the cost or balances of meals are the responsibility of the parent or guardian.
- Due to provisions current laws, the school district is unable to establish a charging limit for students requesting complete meals.
- Opt-out forms are available for families who do not want to participate in the Free/Reduced program. This does not prevent meal purchases as schools must feed all students, but it will alert the school to contact parents or guardians when a purchase is made. You can find the Opt-out form on our Opt-out form
- Nutrition Services does not provide alternative meals to students that have a charging limit imposed by the parent or guardian or have a negative balance on their meal account.
Charging
Account Management and Collection of Delinquent Debt
The school district allows for the prepayment of meals directly at the school or online using the LINQ Connect.
- School office staff are able to receive cash or check payments for student meal accounts. No change can be provided. Meal prices are posted on our menus, our district website, and the Nutrislice Menu mobile application.
- The online account management service, LINQ Connect enables management of student accounts online. Features include transaction history, online payments, auto-payments, payment reminders, low balance warnings and more. This tool is a voluntary option for families and a service charge will apply for online payment processing.
Handling of Delinquent Debt
When a payment is overdue or when funds are not present to cover the cost of a meal that has been served and charged on a student’s meal account, the monetary credit extended is considered delinquent debt. The North Clackamas School District will pursue efforts to collect unpaid meal charges or delinquent debts.
- Negative Balance Notifications – The district initiates an automated phone call to households every Thursday notifying of balances owed on the student meal accounts.
- Email notifications are sent every Friday during the school year.
- Notices are mailed to the primary mailing address on record in October, February, April and June. Mailed notices include information about application for free/reduced meal benefits and requests for repayment of meals.
End of Year Student Account Balances
All student meal account balances (positive and negative), automatically to the next school year. If a student(s) has funds and no longer attends North Clackamas School District, families can:
- Request in writing the funds be donated to Nutrition Services to help other families with negative balances. To submit a request, send an email to freeandreduced@nclack.k12.or.us
- Request a refund check on our website at: Meal Account Refund Request Form. NOTE: Refund checks may take up to 4-6 weeks to process.
- Request in writing the funds be transferred to a sibling’s student meal account. To submit a request, send an email to freeandreduced@nclack.k12.or.us
- NOTE: Funds that have not been used for two2) consecutive school years are considered inactive accounts and money is sent to the State of Oregon as unclaimed property.
HB3454 INFORMATION
On August 8th, 2017 House Bill 3454 into law. The bill outlines practices and communication that are not allowed in Oregon school cafeterias. The law is intended to reduce or remove practices and communications that have been deemed as “shaming” to students regarding the collection of funds in exchange for meals or identification of balances for unpaid meals. Key points of the bill include:
- Must provide written permission to withhold meal from student or establish a charging limit.
- The school district shall contact households to determine Free or Reduced-price eligibility; repeat contact if owing more than five (5) meals. Offer assistance in completing Free or Reduced-price meal applications.
- Not publicly identify who cannot pay for or owes money for
- Not serve an alternative meal to a student who cannot pay.
- Shall communicate about monies owed to parent or guardian and not students.
- May not assess fees related to agencies to parent or guardian.
Current impacts of this bill include an increased balance of unpaid meal charges for students of all income categories. For the specific language of the bill, click here.
For any information or questions, please call the Free and Reduced Helpline at 503-353-6034 or email freeandreduced@nclack.k12.or.us
THIS INSTITUTION IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROVIDER.
