MEDIA RELEASE

HONOLULU – Parents and guardians of public school students will now be able to conveniently manage, monitor and pay for their child’s school meal account online and through a mobile app. The Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) will launch the online school lunch payment system, EZSchoolPay, on Monday, May 7, 2018.

EZSchoolPay is a secure service being offered through Harris School Solutions (eTrition). The new statewide student meal payment system provides the following online uses:

• add funds securely, conveniently and directly into student meal accounts at any time from the app or online.
• set recurring automatic payments to ensure accounts are always refilled.
• receive automated alert notifications when the account balance drops below a certain amount.
• view student meal transactions and account balances.

The Department successfully completed its three-month transition process for all 256 schools to eTrition after the previous contract for SchoolCafé ended.

Dann Carlson, assistant superintendent, Office of School Facilities and Support Services added, “We negotiated a $0.13 convenience fee with the new vendor, saving parents $0.67. With the new meal payment system, the transaction fee is also lower at 1.99 percent. The previous transaction fee was 5 percent.”

Parents will still have the option of paying with cash or check at their child’s school at no charge and can use EZSchoolPay to check their balance. The EZSchoolPay is accessible on iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

A letter from HIDOE’s School Food Services Branch will be distributed next week notifying parents about this new system and next steps.

For general information about the new system, please visit the EZSchoolPay’s Frequently Asked Questions page.