BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 292
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
292 (Santiago)
As Amended June 2, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Education |5-1 |O'Donnell, Chávez, |Kim |
| | |McCarty, Santiago, | |
| | |Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |12-4 |Gomez, Bonta, |Bigelow, Gallagher, |
| | |Calderon, Daly, |Jones, Wagner |
| | |Eggman, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Requires school districts to ensure that there is adequate time
to eat lunch after the meal is served to students. Specifically,
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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 and develop a plan to implement ways to
increase pupils' time to eat lunch.
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 and state law.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, unknown General Fund/Proposition 98 (1988) state
mandated costs, potentially in excess of $1 million. There are
over 1,000 school districts that oversee 9,919 schools in
California. Costs claims could include staff time to develop and
implement a plan as well as monitoring and data collection to
ensure each school is providing adequate time to eat lunch.
Depending on the plan, districts may need to purchase equipment
and make system upgrades; provide additional points of service or
expand the school day to meet an adequate time goal. Actual costs
will depend on the size and types of claims districts submit to
the Commission on State Mandates to implement this measure.
COMMENTS: 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
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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, 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, and West Virginia.
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Scheduling: If a school does not currently provide adequate time
to eat, the school, in consultation with the district, will be
required to identify and develop a plan to implement 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 length of the school day, increasing the
number of tables available, increasing the number of lunch
periods, and increasing the number of lunch lines.
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 Assembly 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
Assembly may wish to consider whether to include charter schools,
which currently choose to provide school lunch, in this
requirement.
Arguments in Support: The California Food Policy Advocates
sponsors this bill 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
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students are given the time they need to eat during the school
day."
Analysis Prepared by:
Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN: 0000815