Bill > S1531

Introduced Session

This bill would require all schools in the State to serve free breakfast and lunch to all enrolled students, regardless of whether the students are federally eligible for free or reduced price meals pursuant to the National School Lunch Program and federal School Breakfast Program. Existing State law requires school lunch programs to be offered by all schools, except those that have fewer than five percent of students who are federally eligible for free or reduced price lunches, and it requires school breakfast programs to be offered by any school in which 20 percent or more of the students enrolled in the school on October 1 of the preceding school year were federally eligible for free or reduced price breakfasts or lunches. State law additionally requires a breakfast after the bell program, which is used to facilitate the provision of breakfasts under a school's breakfast program, to be offered in each public school in which 70 percent or more of enrolled students are eligible for free or reduced price breakfasts or lunches. Finally, it requires a school district in which at least 50 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced price meals to participate as a sponsor or site under the federal Summer Meals Service Program, pursuant to which meals are provided to students during the summer months and other planned periods of school closure. This bill would alter the existing law to require all schools to offer school lunch and breakfast programs, regardless of the percentage of students at the school who are federally eligible for free or reduced price meals. In addition, the bill requires any meals provided to students, whether under a school lunch program, a school breakfast program, a breakfast after the bell program, or a summer meals program, to be provided to students free of charge, without regard to each student's income eligibility status. The bill would additionally require school meals to be provided to students, free of charge, and without regard to a student's eligibility status, whenever a school is required to provide school meals to students at an external distribution site, due to a public health-related school closure resulting from the COVID-19 epidemic. Each school district, and the Department of Agriculture (DOA), would be required, by the bill, to publicize, to parents and students, the fact that free meals are being made available to all students under all of these programs, pursuant to the bill's provisions. In order to avoid establishing an unfunded mandate, the bill would require the State to provide funding to each school district, as may be necessary to reimburse the costs associated with the district's provision of free meals to students who are otherwise ineligible for free or reduced price meals pursuant to the National School Lunch Program or federal School Breakfast Program. The bill would further clarify that, in accordance with federal law, a school district that executes a summer program meals agreement with the DOA will be eligible to receive reimbursement from the State for free meals that are provided to students under a summer meals program operated pursuant to the federal Summer Food Service Program or the Seamless Summer Option. The bill's reimbursement provisions are is similar to current law, at section 1 of P.L.2019, c.445 (C.18A:33-21.1), which provides that a student who is federally eligible for reduced price meals shall not be required to pay any cost for those meals, and that the State shall reimburse schools for the difference between the federal allocation for reduced price meals and the total cost of the meals served to public school students who are eligible for reduced price meals. Under the bill's provisions, any school that serves lunch or breakfast and is eligible for the Community Eligibility Provision (a special assistance alternative federal reimbursement method that authorizes reimbursement for free school meals provided by eligible, high-poverty local educational agencies and schools participating in both the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program) would be required, to the greatest extent practicable, to participate in, and maximize the receipt of federal resources available under, that reimbursement alternative. The bill would further provide that, if a school participates in a special assistance alternative reimbursement method authorized under the National School Lunch Program (including Provision 2, Provision 3, or the Community Eligibility Provision), the school may determine student eligibility for free or reduced price meals on a four-year basis (rather than every year) for the purposes of school aid determinations under the "School Funding Reform Act of 2008," P.L.2007, c.260 (C.18A:7F-43 et seq.). Specifically, the bill would authorize such a school to establish a base year, for these purposes, by doing either of the following: (1) carrying over, from the school year in which the school initially applied to participate in the special assistance alternative, the number of students at the school who were eligible for free or reduced price meals in that base year, and using each student's eligibility status in that base year to report eligibility for up to each of the following three school years; or (2) determining the number of students at the school who are currently eligible for free or reduced price meals, and using each student's eligibility status in that base year to report eligibility for up to each of the following three school years. In addition, the bill provides that, whenever a student transfers, between schools in the same school district, to a school that participates in a special assistance alternative, documentation supporting the student's eligibility, for the purposes of school aid determinations, may be transferred from the student's old school to the student's new school, as long as the documentation supporting the student's eligibility is less than four years old and is updated at least once every four years thereafter. To the extent permitted by federal law, the bill would authorize a school to establish a new base year, for the purposes of the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program, at the same time that the school establishes a new base year for the purposes of school aid determinations. Although the submission of applications and the performance of eligibility determinations will no longer be required in order for a student to receive free school meals under the bill's provisions, a school or school district will still need to be aware of a student's income eligibility status in order to: (1) facilitate school aid determinations under the "School Reform Funding Act of 2008"; (2) determine whether the school is required either to implement a breakfast after the bell program or to participate in the Summer Food Service Program; and (3) ensure that the school receives appropriate reimbursement, from State and federal sources, for meals provided to students free of charge. As a result, the bill would require a school district, either at the beginning of each school year or upon a student's initial enrollment, to request that the parent or guardian of each student complete a household income data collection form, provided by the DOA, for use in determining the household's economic status for these purposes. This requirement would not apply if the district is able to obtain equivalent data through other lawful means. Income data reported by a parent or guardian, under the bill, would be confidential, and may not be used or shared by the school district, or by the student's school, except for the limited purposes described in the bill. Any request for household income data is to be communicated in a language that the parent or guardian understands, is to specify the limited purposes for which the reported data may be used, and is to be submitted either in writing or electronically. The bill would repeal various sections of existing law, pertaining to school lunch programs, school breakfast programs, and summer meals programs, which are contrary to the bill's provisions. Some of the sections being repealed would be replaced by new sections of the bill. The sections being repealed, and the provisions replacing those repealed sections, are as follows: (1) Section 1 of P.L.2006, c.14 (C.18A:33-3.1). This section pertains to prepayment for school lunches. Because students will no longer be required to pay for school lunches under the bill, this section is being repealed. (2) Section 2 of P.L.1974, c.53 (C.18A:33-5). This section exempts, from school lunch requirements, any school in which less than five percent of enrolled students meet federal eligibility requirements for receipt of free meals. Because the bill requires all schools to provide free school lunches, this section is being repealed. (3) Section 3 of P.L.2003, c.4 (C.18A:33-11). This section requires a school district to publicize the availability of the federal School Breakfast Program, to ensure that students eligible for free or reduced price breakfasts are not treated differently than other students, and to encourage students who are not eligible for free or reduced price breakfasts to, nonetheless, participate in the federal School Breakfast Program. Because the bill provides that income-eligibility may not be considered when providing free meals to students, this section is being repealed, and its publicity provisions are being moved to, and restated in, other provisions of the bill. (4) Section 3 of P.L.2018, c.25 (C.18A:33-11.4). This section provides that the implementation of a breakfast after the bell program will be subject to the applicable requirements of section 3 of P.L.2003, c.4 (C.18A:33-11) and section 1 of P.L.2014, c.66 (C.18A:33-11.1), as well as any rules or regulations adopted pursuant thereto. Because the bill is repealing section 3 of P.L.2003, c.4 (C.18A:33-11), referenced in this provision, and because section 1 of P.L.2014, c.66 (C.18A:33-11.1) does not actually provide any requirements for implementation of a breakfast after the bell program (and instead, merely encourages schools to participate in a breakfast after the bell program), this section is being repealed. (5) Section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21). This section provides procedures to be implemented by a school district, and establishes certain prohibitions on discriminatory treatment, when a student's school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears. Because students will not be required to pay for school lunch or breakfast under the bill's provisions and the determination of school meal arrearages will, therefore, not be relevant to whether a student receives school meals under the bill, this section is being repealed. (6) Section 1 of P.L.2020, c.29 (C.18A:33-21a). This section established a short title for section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) and sections 3 and 4 of P.L.2020, c.29 (C.18A:33-21b and C.18A:33-21c) - the "Hunger-Free Students' Bill of Rights Act." However, the bill is repealing both section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) and section 3 of P.L.2020, c.29 (C.18A:33-21b), cited in this section. In addition, because the last cited section - section 4 of P.L.2020, c.29 (C.18A:33-21c) - contains only a single sentence related to the receipt of school meals by homeless students (not a more detailed provision establishing a "bill of rights" for all students), it no longer seems necessary or appropriate to attach a short title to this sole remaining provision, particularly when the existing short title does not reflect the purpose of the remaining provision. As a result, this short title section is being repealed. (7) Section 3 of P.L.2020, c.29 (C.18A:33-21b). This section requires a school district to provide, to a student's parent or guardian, either at the beginning of the school year, or upon a student's initial enrollment, information on the National School Lunch Program and federal School Breakfast Program, as well as an application to apply for free and reduced meals under these programs, and information on the rights that apply under section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) and P.L.2020, c.29 (C.18A:33-21a et al.), regarding school meal arrearages. Because students will no longer be required to apply for free school lunches or breakfasts under the bill's provisions, and because the bill is repealing section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) (regarding meal arrearages), this section 3 of P.L.2020, c.29 (C.18A:33-21b) is also being repealed. However, it is being replaced with a new section (section 13 of the bill, to be codified at C.18A:33-21b.1), which would require school districts to request that a student's parent or guardian complete a household income data collection form for the limited purposes specified in the bill. (8) Section 1 of P.L.2017, c.387 (C.18A:33-23). This section requires school districts and nonpublic schools to notify each enrolled student, and the student's parent or guardian, about the availability of, and criteria of eligibility for, the school's summer meals program and the locations at which summer meals are being made available. Because eligibility determinations will not be relevant to a student's receipt of summer meals under the bill's provisions, and because section 1 of P.L.2017, c.387 (C.18A:33-23) despite being the only section of law that addresses "summer meals programs," fails to adequately describe what a summer meals program is or how it works, this section is being repealed and replaced with a new section (section 15 of the bill, to be codified at C.18A:33-23.1), which clarifies the rules applicable to school districts that provide meals to students through a summer meals program, and which additionally requires school districts to provide notice to parents and guardians regarding the availability of summer meals, the locations where such meals are offered, and the fact that summer meals are offered to students free of charge. In addition to the repealers described above, this bill would also clarify and reorder the provisions of sections 1 and 2 of P.L.2018, c.28 (C.18A:33-24 an C.18A:33-25), in order to make it clear that section 1 applies to school districts that are required to become a sponsor or site under the Summer Food Service Program, while section 2 applies to school districts that elect to become a sponsor or site under the Summer Food Service Program, despite not being required to do so. Finally, the bill would add a new central definitions section that incorporates all definitions relevant to the provision of school meals in the State. This definitions section would be applicable to the bill's new sections, as well as to the remaining (un-repealed) provisions of Chapter 33 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes, which is the chapter of law that addresses the provision of school meals in the State, and in which the provisions of this bill will be codified.

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Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Environment and Energy Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document