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.
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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,
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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
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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
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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.
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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