Cleveland County Schools
Child Nutrition Services
Check Policy

Cleveland County Schools Child Nutrition Services is always looking for ways to be more efficient and effective in our fiscal policies.  While it may seem like a minor issue to some, receipt of non-sufficient fund (NSF) checks is a time consuming and costly issue.  As with any business, Cleveland County Schools Child Nutrition Services has an obligation to our parents, the community taxpayers, to be fiscally accountable.  Processing NSF checks can take valuable time from the school personnel.  To manage this process, our program uses FARS (Federal Automated Recovery Systems) to protect the interest of all in our community against the time consuming and costly recovery of Non-Sufficient fund checks.

FARS utilizes the federal and state laws allowing the electronic recovery process of NSF checks which results in a high rate of recovery at no cost to the school district.  The cost becomes the responsibility of those who wrote non-sufficient fund checks with the electronic recovery of the face amount of the check and the electronic recovery of the state fee from the bad check writer’s bank account.  Utilizing FARS is an effort by the district to be fiscally accountable in a more efficient and cost effective manner.

Cleveland County Schools Child Nutrition Services will gladly accept checks.  When a check is used as payment, the check writer authorizes us either to use information from the check to make a one-time electronic fund transfer from the check writer’s account or to process the payment as a check transaction.  The check writer authorizes us to collect a fee through an electronic fund transfer from the check writer’s account if the payment is returned unpaid.

  No longer will the school staff arrange for the repayment of checks returned for non-sufficient funds.  FARS will be responsible for the electronic collection of NSF checks turned in to any school cafeteria.

For more information concerning this contact FARS toll free at 1-877-546-2678.

Child Nutrition Services gladly accepts checks for the amount of purchase or for the prepayment of meals under these conditions:

• Checks must include the following information: Full name, street address, phone numbers.
• When you provide a check as payment, you authorize us to use information from the check to make a one-time electronic fund transfer from your account, or to process the payment as a check transaction.
• Checks must be made payable to the school cafeteria.
• Only personal checks with preprinted name and address will be
  accepted. (No business or counter checks.)
• One check may be used to pay on multiple accounts at the same school by listing all the account numbers and the amount of money to go on each account in the memo section of the check