Paying for school lunch just got easier at Kaiser High School, where students are now using debit cards instead of cash.

The school is among a growing number of campuses statewide that have switched to an electronic meal-tracking system. About 100 of the 253 campuses around the state use some kind of meal-tracking system that either debits the price of a meal off a student's identification card or scans a ticket that is used to keep tabs on the number of lunches sold.

The system makes life easier for schools, which no longer have to count cash daily, make change in the cafeteria or hire cashiers. Also, students who are on free or reduced-priced lunches don't have to worry about being identified and ostracized because they carry a lunch card and full-paying students don't.

"It required a lot of manpower to see the tickets and time to account for the money," said Kaiser vice principal Susan Okano. "The transition from the ticket system to this automated system occurred through a comprehensive team effort."

Four schools went online this year and six more are expected by the end of the school year using one of four meal tracking programs operating in Hawai'i, said Terri Jean Kam-Ogawa, acting director of the state Department of Education food services division.

"It's beneficial to parents because they know their money is being used to buy lunch," Kam-Ogawa said. "So their money is being used as it was intended. But one of the main reasons is to prevent over-identifying the students who are receiving free or reduced lunch."

But sometimes students get all the way to the front of the lunch line, only to find out they don't have any money left on their card to buy lunch — and the school doesn't accept cash, said Alvin Park, 14, a Kaiser freshman.

"Whenever you run out, you have to recharge by 10 a.m.," Park said. "If you run out, it's embarrassing. They warn you when you're getting low, but sometimes I forget."

The first month of the program at Kaiser went smoothly, Okano said. The program went into effect Nov. 7, and on the first day about half of the school's 1,012 students had deposited money into their accounts.

Now, more than 770 students — about three-fourths — are in line for lunch with their debit cards, Okano said.

"We're trying to encourage the kids to buy their own lunches so they're not too generous with their parents' money, and so that we can keep track of how many students we serve. We don't get federal credit for any lunches on a single day after the first one is purchased."

Kaiser sophomore Kelly Ho, 15, said she worries about losing her identification card and whether she has enough money on it to buy lunch.

Schools receive federal money for meal service and the meal-tracking systems help them account for their inventory and the number of breakfasts or lunches sold, Okano said.

Jean Sugimoto, principal at Aliamanu Elementary School, has had a meal-tracking program in place at that school for four years. The program, which keeps track of meals served to 811 students, was the brainchild of the cafeteria manager who thought it would be easier to account to the federal government for subsidies.

"It's kind of expensive," Sugimoto said. "We're looking to go completely computerized and not accept any cash at lunch."

Okano said Kaiser's students have been responsible so far with their lunch identification cards and have not lost them.

"It's been very helpful with the overt identification of the free and reduced-meal students. We have very few, less than 10 percent," Okano said. "We don't want to discourage them from buying lunch because they are recognized (as being) on free and reduced-meal programs.

"Now everyone has the same kind of card."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.