Escambia and Santa Rosa schools to adapt new rule banning ‘junk fees’ by 2027-2028

WEAR News | By Sarah Gail | November 14, 2024

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The USDA announced a new rule that bans schools from charging junk fees.

These are fees that are added when families add money to school lunch accounts.

This ban would be in place for families that qualify for free or reduced breakfast and lunch.

“It’s a convenience and there’s a cost for convenience,” Santa Rosa County School Food Service Coordinator Cindy Norton said.

Junk fees are processing fees from third-party vendors when parents put money in their lunch accounts online.

“Our accounts are for online payments,” Norton said. “When a family makes a deposit to our online payment, there’s a fee on that vendor’s side. The district does not get that fee.”

Both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties have these fees.

Santa Rosa has a flat rate of $2.50 per transaction.

You can avoid those fees by paying cash or using a check, but that comes with its own issues.

“You end up having to send that with a kid or mail that in with the student and that may get lost or that may get stolen,” Norton said.

With this new rule, parents will not have to pay those fees if they are on free or reduced-pay meal status, which is a large population of our community.

In Escambia County, there are nearly 40,000 students in the district, with nearly 5,000 of those on free or reduced meal status.

And in Santa Rosa County out of about 30,000 students, 32% have free meal status, and 10% have reduced pay.

“Almost half of our student population is in need of that lower cost or free cost meal,” Norton said.

Norton says banning these fees could definitely help these families.

“With the inflation, groceries, and gas- it all hits everybody’s pockets,” Norton said.

“I think it’s good for families that are in need of that and that’s one less fee they’re charged,” she added.

However, it will be a somewhat sticky situation to navigate for the school districts.

“There’s a lot of questions that we’ll have on the district side in order to get to that rule and stay in compliance with that rule,” Norton said.

“The vendors may have to revamp their software platforms in order to make that happen,” she added.

The new rule will not take effect until the 2027 – 2028 school year, to give schools and vendors time to navigate the changes.