FYI: 2019 Lawsuit alleges lunch payment service used by @mcps @mocoboe defrauded parents

Families in D.C., Maryland and Virginia could be pulled into a class-action lawsuit that’s been filed against an online lunch payment service being accused of pocketing money parents believed was going to their children’s schools.

Heartland Payment Systems, which owns and operates MySchoolBucks, is the subject of the lawsuit filed in the spring by Florida resident Max Story. He says Heartland misled him into believing program fees associated with the service were going to his child’s school.

With the lawsuit, families are “seeking damages and remedies to get back the money they paid that they shouldn’t have had to based on the fraud,” said Jennifer Bennett, Story’s attorney. “It turns out that it was Heartland, itself, that was charging fees, and none of the money was going to schools.”..

...D.C. Public Schools, as well as Prince George’s, Montgomery, Fairfax and several other counties in Maryland and Virginia, use MySchoolBucks. The service is optional in many schools, but families who opt in use it to pay for meals and before- and after-school programs.

The lawsuit revolves around a $2.49 program fee that took effect in 2017 and accompanies every MySchoolBucks transaction. The fee is lower in Montgomery County Public Schools, where users pay $1.95, according to the district’s website.

Heartland, in its Terms of Service agreement, told parents their schools may charge them a fee to use the service, according to the lawsuit filed in May...

https://wapo.st/3OfFDwT