Bill > A5902

Introduced Session

This bill includes a number of provisions regarding a school district's responsibilities when a student's school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears. Pursuant to the bill, prior to contacting the parent to provide notice of the school meal bill in arrears, the school district is required to exhaust all options and methods to directly certify the student for the free or reduced priced meal program. If the school district is not able to directly certify the student, when the district sends the notification of the arrearage to the parent, it must include a paper copy of, or an electronic link to, an application for the school meal program and contact the parent to encourage submission of the application. The bill also includes a provision that requires school districts to ensure that a student whose school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears is not shamed, treated differently, forced to go to the end of the food line, or served a meal that differs from what a student whose bill is not in arrears would receive. Under the bill, a district may not permit any action directed at a student to collect unpaid school meal fees. Districts may attempt to collect unpaid school meal fees from parents, but the districts are not permitted to use a debt collector or threaten to make a child protective services report in regard to the arrearage. The bill also clarifies that nothing in section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) requires a school district to deny school breakfast or school lunch to a student whose bill is in arrears, but rather to provide adequate notice and opportunity to the student's parent or guardian if the district determines to take such an action.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

JoAnn Downey (D)*,  Mila Jasey (D)*,  Pam Lampitt (D)*,  Daniel Benson (D),  Ralph Caputo (D),  Herbert Conaway (D),  Angelica Jimenez (D),  Yvonne Lopez (D),  Angela Mcknight (D),  Pedro Mejia (D),  Carol Murphy (D),  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D),  Shanique Speight (D),  Edward Thomson (R),  Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D), 

Passed by the Assembly (75-0-0) (on 01/13/2020)

Official Document