District’s Poorest Schoolchildren Are Color-Coded

In Chelsea’s impoverished school system, there’s a new way to tell the poorest of the poor: Elementary students with blue stickers get free lunches and those wearing yellow can afford to pay.

Some experts say the temporary system stigmatizes poor children. But in Chelsea, once one of the worst school districts in the nation, it’s a nonissue to many parents.

This immigrant city of 30,000 just north of Boston recently overhauled all of its school buildings and opened seven new schools.

The stickers are meant to keep lines moving in the cafeteria by telling the cashier at a glance how much each youngster must pay.

Supt. Douglas Sears argued that the notion that children bear a stigma is largely a creation of the media and academics.

“This is a stretch,” he said. “I know what the allusion is there. But we’re not in the business of identifying kids. We’re in the business of educating kids.”

The tags are to be replaced in about a month by photo IDs with scannable magnetic strips.