The district says that it is trying to collect more than $20,000, and that other methods to get parents to pay have not been successful. Four parents owe at least $450 apiece. The letter claims the unpaid bills could lead to dependency hearings and removal of their children for not providing them with food. “You can be sent to dependency court for neglecting your child’s right to food. The result may be your child being taken from your home and placed in foster care,” the letter read. After complaints, district officials announced they plan to send out a less threatening letter next week. Luzerne County’s manager and child welfare agency director have written the superintendent, insisting the district stop making what they call false claims. Their letter calls the district’s actions troubling and a misrepresentation of how the Children and Youth Services Department and its foster care program operate. Wyoming Valley West’s lawyer, Charles Coslett, said he did not consider the letters to be threatening. “Hopefully, that gets their attention and it certainly did, didn’t it? I mean, if you think about it, you’re here this morning because some parents cried foul because he or she doesn’t want to pay a debt attributed to feeding their kids. How shameful,” Coslett told WYOU-TV.

What a lovely person this Charles Coslett, attorney at law, is!

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/nation-world/kids-could-end-foster-care-over-lunch-debt-school-district-warns-parents-2019-jul/530-1952542e-0f2c-4b3a-b6f0-a32de5dbce58