BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 292 Page 1 Date of Hearing: March 25, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION O'Donnell, Chair AB 292 (Santiago) - As Amended March 18, 2015 SUBJECT: Pupil nutrition: free or reduced-price meals: adequate time to eat SUMMARY: Requires school districts to ensure that there is adequate time to eat lunch after the meal is served to students. Specifically, this bill: 1)Declares that the California Department of Education (CDE) specifies adequate time to eat school lunch as 20 minutes after being served. 2)Specifies that upon annual review of the bell schedule, if a school determines that it is currently not providing pupils with adequate time to eat, the school, in consultation with the district, shall identify ways to increase pupils' time to eat. 3)Authorizes the appropriate school food authority, to the extent that funds are available, to use federally or state-regulated nonprofit school food service cafeteria accounts to defray any costs allowable under the federal National School Lunch Program in accordance with that funding source before considering other funding streams. AB 292 Page 2 EXISTING LAW requires, notwithstanding any other provision of law, each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining any kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide for each needy pupil one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, except for family day care homes that shall be reimbursed for 75 percent of the meals served. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, from a substantially similar bill, school district / county office of education (COE) enforcement: Potentially significant reimbursable mandate on school districts and COEs to "ensure that each of the schools in their respective jurisdictions provides their pupils adequate time to eat after being served, as specified. COMMENTS: The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in over 100,000 public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provided nutritionally balanced, lowcost or free lunches to more than 31 million children each school day in 2012. In 1998, Congress expanded the National School Lunch Program to include reimbursement for snacks served to children in afterschool educational and enrichment programs to include children through 18 years of age. The Food and Nutrition Service administers the program at the federal level. At the State level, the National School Lunch Program is usually administered by state education agencies, which operate the program through agreements with school food authorities. In California, the California Department of Education (CDE) administers the program. According to the author, "Lunch periods provide a much-needed time for students to take a break and refuel their bodies. For many low-income students, school lunch may be the most nutritious meal of the day. Unfortunately, California students frequently miss out on the full benefits of school lunch because they don't have enough time to eat. Time pressures at lunch can result in food waste and poor nutrition. The CDE recommends that students have 20 minutes to eat after receiving their lunches, AB 292 Page 3 but many schools are not meeting that recommendation. A 2013 CDE survey of over 1,000 school principals found that only 24.9% of elementary schools and 8.2% of middle/high schools had policies at the site or district level specifying an amount of time that students have to eat. When asked to estimate the amount of time the last student in line has to eat during the lunch period, only 28.1% of elementary principals and 44.8% of middle/high school principals reported that they were provided at least 20 minutes to eat." Further the author states, "In 1990, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) established guidelines to ensure that the last child in the lunch line be given no less than 20 minutes to eat lunch at school after being served. However, in 2012, LAUSD's board found that only 49% of elementary and 29% of high schools in LAUSD gave pupils the required time to eat, and since has developed a subsequent resolution to address this." What is adequate time to eat? The CDE, in the 2006 report "School Nutrition?by Design," specifies that one strategy for increasing student participation in school lunch is, "scheduling sufficient time to enable students to eat after being served-no less than 10 minutes for breakfast and no less than 20 minutes for lunch." This bill states that the CDE specifies adequate time to eat after being served to be 20 minutes. Adding this element in statute will allow CDE to define adequate time in regulations and to develop different options for schools to consider as they work to ensure every student has time to eat lunch. Currently, the following states have policies in place that require all schools to provide students with adequate time to eat: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia. Scheduling: If a school does not currently provide adequate time to eat, the school, in consultation with the district, will be required to identify ways to increase the time available to eat. A range of solutions could be implemented to increase the time available to eat. Some solutions include increasing the AB 292 Page 4 length of the school day, increasing the number of tables available, increasing the number of lunch periods, and increasing the number of lunch lines. While the bill requires a school to identify ways to increase time to eat, it is unclear whether it requires a school to implement those changes. Unintended Consequences: There could be some potential unintended consequences in implementing this bill. If the school determines that the school day must be lengthened to accommodate a longer lunch period, what are the collective bargaining implications? This bill creates a mandate; would the cost of lengthening the school day be reimbursable? If a school provides 20 minutes to eat, but some children only require 10 minutes to eat, will they be required to sit at the lunch table for the entire 20 minutes when it may not be practical to require children to sit the extra time? The committee should consider how this bill will be implemented and the unintended consequences. Charter Schools: While charter schools are not required to provide school meals, some choose to provide school lunch. The committee may wish to consider whether to include charter schools, which currently choose to provide school lunch, in this requirement. Previous Legislation: AB 2449 (Bocanegra) from 2014, was substantially similar to this bill and would have required school districts and county offices of education (COEs) to ensure that each of their schools provide students adequate time to eat after being served a meal. Committee Amendments: Staff recommends the bill be amended as follows: 1)Clarify that the requirement to provide adequate time to eat only applies to lunch. 2)Specify that schools shall make available to their pupils adequate time to eat. 3)Specify that if a school determines it is currently not AB 292 Page 5 providing pupils with adequate time to eat, a school, in consultation with the district, shall identify and develop a plan to increase pupils' time to eat. Recess: In a letter received by a 5th grade class, students expressed concerns about the potential for this bill to cause a reduction in the length of recess and how that would impact student health. The committee may wish to consider how elementary schools may implement this bill as it relates to the length of recess, compared to the different implementation issues faced in secondary schools. Arguments in Support: The California Food Policy Advocates sponsors AB 292 and states, "AB 292 would bring California up to speed with the nine other states and the District of Columbia that have policies in place requiring adequate time to eat lunch at school. California currently has no state statute that guarantees an adequate meal break for students; however, state labor law ensures a minimum 30-minute, uninterrupted meal break for employees. California should ensure that its hard-working students are given the time they need to eat during the school day." REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) California Association of Food Banks California Black Health Network California Catholic Conference of Bishops California Center for Public Health Advocacy California Dietetic Association California Food Policy Advocates (Sponsor) Center for Ecoliteracy Children Now Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Inc. AB 292 Page 6 Feeding America San Diego Hunger Action Los Angeles Locally Delicious Long Beach Alliance for Food and Fitness River City Food Bank San Diego Hunger Coalition SF-Marin Food Bank Two Individuals Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by: Chelsea Kelley/ED./(916) 319-2087