Bill > S334

Introduced Session

This bill requires the Department of Agriculture, in consultation with the Department of Education, to develop and administer a "breakfast after the bell" incentive fund to provide an additional reimbursement to certain school districts that participate in the federal school breakfast program. Under the bill, the incentive fund will provide a 10-cent per breakfast supplement to the existing federal reimbursement to a school district with schools that participate in the federal school breakfast program that serve "breakfast after the bell" with 20 to 100 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced price breakfast. The bill directs the Department of Agriculture, in consultation with the Department of Education, to provide guidance and support to school districts, and to prepare and issue an annual report detailing the annual cost of the incentive fund and the number and percentage of additional students participating in the "breakfast after the bell" program for each school district. The bill specifies that the Legislature is to annually appropriate funds necessary to implement the bill. The purpose of the fund is to provide an incentive to school districts in this State to move to a school breakfast model that has the capacity to reach more hungry students since low to middle income school districts face greater challenges in covering the costs of an effective school breakfast program.

Committee Categories

Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D)*,  Shirley Turner (D)*,  Jim Beach (D),  Teresa Ruiz (D), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 01/09/2018)