Department of Education officials agree that no child should go without lunch and no child should be penalized if a parent forgets to hand over lunch money.

But they're wrestling with how to come up with an equitable policy to ensure that children don't miss lunch and to keep public schools from running up big non-payment tabs by parents.

"The number of students who go without lunch is literally a handful," said Randy Moore, assistant superintendent of the Office of Business Services, who has been asked by a Board of Education committee to come up with a state-wide strategy. "The most recent flap came because a parent simply didn't get around to replenishing the money."

In general, Moore said, parents prepay for lunch at the beginning of a semester or each month. Some schools issue tickets each morning in exchange for the student's $1. Others use a prepaid card that's scanned daily and shows how much is remaining.

Lunch costs $1 a day, or $180 for the school year.

In a report to a BOE committee this week, Moore said the department currently prefers that schools do two things if students have no funds for lunch:

Send a note home advising the parent to send home lunch, and then provide the student with a "modified" meal that would be either a cheese or jelly sandwich, 3/8 cup of fruit and a beverage, at no charge for up to three days.

He suggested schools could pay for the meal out of their petty cash.

However, those preferences may change as Moore studies the question over the next month and meets with area superintendents.

Moore said the total losses to schools are minimal — under $10,000 — because parents eventually do pay. But he pointed out that the schools can't just give away lunch because it would be a staggering cost to the state.

"We don't want the message to go out that if you never pay, we'll still give you lunch," he said.

Families pay about $12 million into the school lunch program for their children's lunch.

About 40 percent of the state's 182,000 public school students — or about 70,000 children — receive free or reduced-cost lunch because they come from low-income families.

To solve her school's occasional problems with forgetful families, 'Ewa Beach Elementary principal Sherry Kobayashi sends more reminders home with pupils as a lunch prepayments run low.

"Our goal is to make sure all the kids get fed," she said.

Like other schools, 'Ewa Beach Elementary reverts to an "alternative lunch" of a starch and water when parents fail to send money or keep their tab current.

"We've tried lunch loans," Kobayashi said, but they are not always repaid. And a small fund for lunch loans was depleted several years ago and has never been replenished. "The PTA used to give us an amount ... but we haven't had a PTA for three years," she said.

Kobayashi said that while the alternative lunch option is not popular with the staff, it usually it works to inspire parents to remember to send lunch money.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.