Bill > S571

Introduced Session

Current law provides a process for notifying a parent or guardian when a public school student's school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears and allowing the parent or guardian a certain amount of time to pay the amount due. Under that law, a student is not suddenly denied a school meal because the school district determines that the student's school meal bill is in arrears. This bill provides additional protections for a student whose school meal bill is in arrears. Under the bill, the school district would not be permitted to publicly identify or stigmatize a student who cannot pay for a school breakfast or a school lunch or whose meal bill is in arrears by, for example, requiring the student to wear a wristband or hand stamp or by prohibiting the student from participating in field day, a class trip, or other extracurricular activities. In addition, the district would not be permitted to require the student to do chores or other work to pay for the school breakfast or school lunch. The bill also requires a school district to communicate about a meal bill in arrears to the parent or guardian, not to the student. The bill clarifies, though, that a school district is allowed to send a student home with a letter addressed to a parent or guardian regarding the meal bill matter.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Linda Greenstein (D)*,  Fred Madden (D)*,  Jim Beach (D),  Tom Kean (R), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 01/14/2020)

Official Document