BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 949
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 24, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Richard Pan, Chair
SB 949 (Jackson) - As Amended: May 7, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 36-0
SUBJECT : Nutrition: Distinguished After School Health
Recognition Program.
SUMMARY : Establishes the Distinguished After School Health
(DASH) Recognition Program, to be administered by the California
Department of Public Health (DPH), in consultation with the
California Department of Education (CDE) and develops a
self-certification process for after school programs.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes the DASH Program, to be administered by DPH in
consultation with CDE, as appropriate.
2)Requires DPH to develop a process administered on its Internet
Website for an after school program to self-certify that it
meets the criteria of the DASH Program.
3)Defines an after-school program as the After School Education
and Safety Program (ASES), the 21st Century High School After
School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (High School ASSETs)
Program, and other qualified out-of-school time and licensed
childcare programs, as specified, that are outside of regular
school hours, including before school and on weekends;
4)Requires DASH Program participants to meet the following
requirements:
a) Requires each staff member to received training on the
importance of modeling healthy eating and physical
activity;
b) Requires the program to provide regular and ongoing
nutrition education to each program attendee to help in
developing and practicing healthy habits;
c) Requires the program ensure that each attendee
participates daily in an average of 30 to 60 minutes of
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moderate to vigorous physical activity;
d) Requires screen time, as defined, to be limited during
program hours and only allowed in connection with homework
or an activity that engages attendees in a physical
activity or an educational experience;
e) Requires healthy foods, including, but not limited to,
fruits and vegetables, without added sugar, to be served to
attendees as snacks daily. Prohibits fried foods, candy,
or foods that are primarily sugar-based or high in sodium
and that include trans-fats from being served to attendees
or consumed by staff during program hours. Requires snacks
or meals provided pursuant to the ASES, High School ASSETs,
and the Child and Adult Care Food (CACF) Program meal
guidelines to be deemed to meet this standard;
f) Program attendees shall be served water, low-fat or
nonfat milk, or 100% fruit juice, with a preference for
water. Milk and fruit juices shall not be served in
quantities exceeding eight ounces per day. Sugar-sweetened
beverages shall not be served to program attendees or
consumed by staff while at the program site;
g) If located on a school site, the program communicates
with the school regarding nutrition education and physical
activity, as appropriate, to provide attendees with a
complete educational experience;
h) The program has implemented an educational program for
parents of attendees that provides them with nutrition and
physical activity information relevant to the after-school
program and the health of their children; and,
i) Information about the implementation of the requirements
is available for review by a parent both at the physical
location of the program and on the program's Internet
website, if there is one.
EXISTING LAW
1)Provides for a comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective
system of child care and development services for children
from infancy to 13 years of age and their patents.
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2)Provides for the licensure and regulation of various types of
child care facilities, including day care centers, by the
Department of Social Services.
3)Establishes the California Nutrition Monitoring Development
Act to determine the availability and types of nutrition
monitoring information currently available in specified
federal, state, and local government programs.
4)Requires DPH to assess the availability and adequacy of
existing state and local food and nutrition data systems and
to require other state entities to provide existing
nutrition-related data.
5)Establishes the "5 A Day - For Better Health" program in DPH,
to the extent funds are available, for the purpose of
promoting public awareness of the need to increase the
consumption of fruits and vegetables as part of a low-fat,
high fiber diet in order to improve health and prevent major
chronic diseases, including diet-related cancers.
6)Allows the promotion of the "5 A Day - For Better Health"
program to the public through channels including, but not
limited to, print and electronic media, retail, grocers,
schools, and other government programs, specifically to the
general adult population, adults with lower educational
attainment, school-age children and youth, and high-risk
groups determined by DPH.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, this bill has likely one-time costs up to $150,000 to
develop program procedures and regulations by DPH, likely
one-time costs up to $160,000 to develop a website and the
underlying information technology infrastructure to allow
programs to track certifications and minor ongoing costs for
program oversight and maintenance.
COMMENTS :
1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL . According to the author, poor nutrition
and lack of physical activity have caused a dramatic rise in
childhood obesity in our state and nationwide. After school
programs have a responsibility to provide nutritious, healthy
foods and adequate amounts of physical activity to their
program participants. Unfortunately, there is no incentive
for out-of-school time or after school programs to provide
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these healthy foods and physical activity. The author states
that it is not uncommon for after school programs to provide
sugary drinks, junk food, and relegate their program
participants to watching TV, remaining sedentary, or without
access to outside play. The author believes that after school
program providers are critical in improving children's eating
and physical activity habits and should be encouraged and
recognized for providing excellent nutrition and physical
activity in their programs. The DASH program and out of
school time programs incentives providers to meet the healthy
standards parents are looking for their children.
2)BACKGROUND . All snacks provided to students attending ASES
programs or federally funded 21st Century Community Learning
Centers (21st CCLC) programs must meet, at a minimum, the
California school nutrition standards described below. If the
snacks are provided through one of the federally reimbursable
snack programs, the snack must meet both the federal
requirements and the California nutrition standards. After
school programs that choose to provide meals (reimbursed by
the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program) must meet
standards established by the United States Department of
Agriculture.
--------------------------------------------------------------
| |Federal |CA Nutrition Standards |This bill |
| |Standards |(Ed Code 49431) | |
|-------+-------------+-------------------------+--------------|
|Beverag|100% fruit |Fruit based or vegetable |Water, milk, |
|es |juice(8oz) |based drinks composed of |and fruit |
| |100% |at least 50% fruit or |juices that |
| |vegetable(8oz|vegetable juice, |are less than |
| |) |drinking water, low-fat |8 oz without |
| |Milk (8oz) |or nonfat milk |added sugar |
|-------+-------------+-------------------------+--------------|
|Prohibi|Grains or |Foods that have: |Fried foods, |
|ted |bread |35% or more calories |candy, or |
| |products |from fat |primarily |
| | |10% or more calories |sugar-based, |
| | |from saturated fat |high in |
| | |35% or more weight from |sodium, or |
| | |sugar |have trans |
| | |More than 175 calories |fat |
| | |per food item | |
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| | |(elementary) | |
| | |More than 250 calories | |
| | |(middle, high school) | |
| | |Deep fried food | |
| | |Artificial transfat | |
|-------+-------------+-------------------------+--------------|
|Allowed|Meat or Meat |Full meals containing |Fruits and |
| |Alternate |individual dairy or |vegetables |
| | |whole grain food, |without added |
| | |individual portions of |sugar |
| | |nuts, nut butters, | |
| | |seeds, eggs, cheese | |
| | |packaged for individual | |
| | |sale, fruit and | |
| | |vegetables that have not | |
| | |been deep fried, and | |
| | |legumes. | |
|-------+-------------+-------------------------+--------------|
|Notes |Snack is two | |Snacks |
| |of the | |provided by |
| |above, meal | |ASES, High |
| |is four of | |School |
| |the above | |ASSETS, |
| | | |CACFP, meet |
| | | |this standard |
--------------------------------------------------------------
a) Voluntary. The California Education Code is permissive;
therefore, after school programs are currently authorized
to exceed nutrition and physical activity standards and
create a certificate of recognition. This bill requires
DPH to develop a certificate template, develop a process
for an after school program to self-certify on DPH's
website, and maintain and update a list of after school
programs that self-certify and post that list on its
website. This bill does not require DPH to actually issue
the certificates; after school programs would "issue" their
own certificates, whether or not the DPH template is used.
b) After School Program Funding. In California, state and
federally funded expanded learning programs serve
approximately 420,000 students in nearly 4,500 programs
across the state. California receives $120 million in
federal funds for 21st CCLC programs. ASES, a state funded
program receives $550 million from Proposition 49 (2002).
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Proposition 49 increased state grant funds available for
before/after school programs, providing tutoring, homework
assistance, and educational enrichment. Proposition 49
required that, beginning 2004-05, new grants will not be
taken from education funds guaranteed by Proposition 98,
which requires a minimum percentage of the state budget to
be spent on K-12 education, and resulted in additional
annual state costs for before and after school programs of
up to $455 million, beginning in 2004-05.
3)SUPPORT . The sponsor and other supporters of the bill argue
that SB 949 encourages after-school program operators to
provide healthy foods, snacks and beverages, physical
activity, limited screen time, healthy living standards, and
educational programs to improve the health and well-being of
California's 1.5 million children who attend these programs.
The sponsors also note that more than 4,400 publicly funded
after-school programs exist in the state, which serve more
than 450,000 low-income K-12 students.
The Association of California Healthcare Districts writes in
support that efforts to promote healthy eating, after-school
programs, and physical activity for children result in a
healthier community overall and support innovative methods in
creating a healthy community.
The California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA) writes in support
that the DASH Recognition Program would include evidence-based
standards, which CFPA believes should be encouraged and
incorporated in all after-school programming that serves
low-income children.
4)RELATED LEGISLATION .
a) AB 626 (Skinner and Lowenthal), Chapter 706, Statutes of
2013, made numerous changes to law related to school
nutrition, mostly to conform to the federal Healthy,
Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
b) SB 464 (Jackson) of 2013 would have established the
Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Act within the Child
Care and Development Services Act (CCDSA) to establish
standards for nutrition and physical activity for early
childhood education programs, infant care programs, and
after-school programs conducted under the CCDSA. SB 464
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would have expressed legislative intent to encourage all
child care providers to implement educational programs for
parents to provide their children with physical activity
and nutritional information relevant to the health of their
children. SB 464 was held in the Senate Education
Committee without being heard.
c) AB 1178 (Bocanegra) of 2013 would have established the
California Promise Neighborhood Initiative to provide
funding to schools that have formalized partnerships with
local agencies and community organizations to provide a
network of services to improve the health, safety,
education, and economic development of a defined area. AB
1178 was held on the suspense file in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
d) AB 70 (Monning) of 2011 would have allowed DPH to apply,
in conjunction with another eligible applicant as
specified, for federal community transformation grants
under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and
the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, as specified.
AB 70 failed in the Senate Health Committee without being
heard.
5)PREVIOUS LEGISLATION . AB 627 (Brownley) of 2009 would have
required the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish
a pilot program under which licensed child care centers and
child day care homes selected by CDE that participate in the
federal CACF Program would implement certain nutrition and
physical activity standards in exchange for a higher state
meal reimbursement. AB 627 was vetoed by the Governor, who
vetoed the bill, stating that the bill would create pressure
to add Proposition 98 General Fund resources to the Child and
Adult Care Food program when funding for so many other
education programs has been cut. It is simply not possible to
initiate a new program in a fiscal environment such as this.
6)POLICY COMMENTS . Currently, this bill requires DPH to
maintain an online recognition program that is self-certified,
and explicitly provide on any printed certificates that none
of the provisions in this bill have been verified by DPH.
While the amendments were proposed to minimize cost and
workload for DPH, by placing these programs on a website
managed by a state agency, there is an assumption of
legitimacy. The state has a responsibility to ensure that any
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programs promoted on a website as an after-school program or
other qualified out-of-school time and licensed childcare
programs are in fact valid programs that meet the provisions
of this bill. The Committee may want to amend the bill to
require DPH to verify that recognized programs meet the
provisions of this bill.
7)RECOMMENDED AMENDMENTS .
a) On page 3, strike lines 25 through 27, inclusive, and
insert, "The department shall develop a process, to be
administered on its Internet Web site, for an after school
program to be recognized as an after school program that
meets the requirements of this article, and shall include
resources and links that an after school program may
utilize to meet the requirements of this article."
b) On page 5, line 18, strike "self-certify on the
department's Internet Web site," and insert "verify with
the department"
c) On page 5, strike "A" on line 20 and lines 21 through
23, inclusive.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California State Association of YMCAs (sponsor)
Association of California Healthcare Districts
American Academy of Pediatrics, Northern California
American Academy of Pediatrics, Greater Los Angeles
American Academy of Pediatrics, San Diego
American Academy of Pediatrics, Orange County
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
A World Fit for Kids
California Academy of Physician Assistants
California Center for Public Health Advocacy
California Collaboration for Youth
California Food Policy Advocates
California Primary Care Association
California School Employees Association
California School Nutrition Association
California State Parent-Teacher Association
Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA
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Center for Collaborative Solutions
EcoFarm
Junior Leagues of California State Public Affairs Committee
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Paula Villescaz / HEALTH / (916)
319-2097