Culinary Services offers a variety of convenient ways to pay for school meals including online payment and paying with check or cash.

Student Meal Debt Policy

Seattle Public Schools is committed to providing nutritious meals to all students. However, we expect all families and students to fulfill their obligation to pay for meals prior to purchase. Any outstanding debt on a student’s meal account will be pursued by the district.

Payment Expectations

It is the responsibility of families and students to ensure that their student meal accounts are paid in full prior to the purchase of meals. Failure to pay for meals may result in the accrual of debt on the student’s account.

Collection of Outstanding Debt

Seattle Public Schools reserves the right to collect on outstanding debt incurred by students and families. This includes, notifying parents/guardians of delinquent accounts.  If your family and/or student is experiencing a financial hardship, please contact your School Administrator to determine any options available to you and/or your family.

Policy Compliance

Our Student Meal Debt Policy is guided by the following supported documentation:

• OSPI Meal Charge Policy Reference Sheet
• OSPI Unpaid Meal Charges Reference Sheet
• Superintendent Procedure 3520SP
• RCW 28A.235.260

We encourage all families and students to carefully review these documents and understand their responsibilities regarding meal payments.

Reminders and Notifications

To avoid accumulation of debt, we recommend that families and students:

• Regularly check their student meal account balance
• Keep track of meal purchases and payments
• Notify the school cafeteria staff or school administration if there are any issues with their account

By working together, we can ensure that every student has access to nutritious meals while maintaining a positive balance on their account.

If you have any questions or concerns about our Student Meal Debt Policy, please do not hesitate to contact culinaryservices@seattleschools.org.

Culinary Services offers a variety of convenient ways to pay for school meals. Checks and cash are accepted by the school’s lunchroom manager either as a pre-paid deposit to a student’s account or for purchasing individual meals, milk, or other àla carte items. Checks should be made payable to Culinary Services.

Families are also encouraged to work with the lunchroom manager at their child’s school to discuss paying for meals, how to apply for school meal benefits, menus, etc.

Student meals can be paid for with a credit card online at MySchoolBucks.

MySchoolBucks requires the Student’s ID number to create an account. The Student ID number can be found on report cards or by accessing The Source.

MySchoolBucks charges users a $2.75 fee for credit/debit card meal payments and $2.49 for electronic check meal payments for a maximum payment limit of $200.

The fee will not be applied multiple times within the same transaction when a parent is paying for multiple students. This will allow families of two or more students to make payments up to $400 in one transaction (or even $600 dollars if they have 3 students).