School District Approves Rich Kids For Free Lunches

HOUSTON - No one would want to see a student go hungry all day, including Bill Carver.

"I don't have a problem with people getting free food that need it," Carver said. "Obviously we want the kids fed."

But Carver said his 13 and 15-year-old sons don't need a free lunch and based on the Houston Independent School District's guidelines, there's no way they could even qualify. HISD offers reduced prices for lunch when a family of four makes less than $41,000 a year, free lunches for families of four making less than $28,000 a year.

Carver, who lives in West University Place doesn't want his families income public knowledge, but the puzzled father says his sons aren't even close to qualifying and HISD knows that.

"And for some reason both of my children qualified for free lunches even though my income level is probably five times the required limit," Carver said.

Carver said he spoke to a supervisor with the district's free lunch program who offered no explanation as to why his sons qualified.

"If by some reason there's a mistake on my application then I think that should have been addressed and my name taken off the list," Carver said "But it was almost like I needed to beg to get my name off the list as opposed to saying, oh absolutely we'll take it off"

When FOX 26 Investigates asked, H.I.S.D. told us Carver's son who attends Pershing Elementary School was initially denied because of the families income, but his son who attends Lamar High School was approved due to a data entry error. The district said it does a sibling cross check on all approved applications so that's how Carver's younger son ended up being erroneously approved.

HISD calls the mistake isolated.

"We are processing a lot of applications, but we go back and we do a check and balance," Chandra Robertson-Bailey, Manager of HISD'S free lunch program said. "We also go back and re-validate our applications to ensure that there are not errors and if there are they are corrected immediately."

While HISD says no parents have to fill out the free lunch applications, Carver says his son was told the form must be filled out.

"He was actually pulled out of class and taken down to an office and given a new form and told that he had not turned his paperwork in and told that they absolutely need the paperwork and he needed to get it back as soon as possible," Carver said.

HISD says there's no incentive for them to add students who don't qualify since the district only gets reimbursed for free lunches that are actually eaten.