BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 708
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|Author: |Mendoza |
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|Version: |April 16, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: April 22, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lynn Lorber |
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Subject: Pupil nutrition: free or reduced-price meals: online
applications
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes school districts and county offices of
education to make electronic applications for free or
reduced-price meals available, and requires both paper and
electronic applications to contain clear instructions for
families that are homeless or are migrants.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1. Requires each school district or county office of
education to provide for each needy student one
nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during
each schoolday. (Education Code § 49550)
2. Requires school districts and county offices of
education to make applications for free or reduced-price
meals available to students at all times during each
regular schoolday. (EC § 49557)
3. Encourages each school district and county office of
education to include information that parents may use to
request information concerning the Medi-Cal program, and
the Healthy Families Program. (EC § 49557.1)
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4. Authorizes school districts or county offices of
education to incorporate information relative to Medi-Cal
and health care coverage through the California Health
Benefit Exchange into the School Lunch Program application
packet or notification of eligibility. (EC § 49557.2)
5. Requires all applications and records concerning any
individual made or kept by any public officer or agency
relating to free or reduced-price meal eligibility to be
confidential, and may not be open to examination for any
purpose not directly connected with the administration of a
free or reduced-price meal program.
(EC § 49558)
ANALYSIS
This bill authorizes school districts and county offices of
education to make electronic applications for free or
reduced-price meals available, and requires both paper and
electronic applications to contain clear instructions for
families that are homeless or are migrants. Specifically, this
bill:
1. Authorizes school districts and county offices of education
to make an application for free or reduced-price meals
electronically available online, provided that the online
application meets the requirements described in #3.
2. Requires both the paper and electronic application,
pursuant to federal and state guidelines, to contain clear
instructions for families that are homeless or are
migrants.
3. Requires the online application, if a school district,
county office of education, or a school food service
officer chooses to provide access to an online application,
to comply with all of the following requirements:
A. Include a link to the website on which
translated applications are posted by the United
States Department of Agriculture with instructions in
that language that inform the applicant how to submit
the application.
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B. Require completion of only those
questions that are necessary for determining
eligibility.
C. Include clear instructions for families
that are homeless or are migrants.
D. Comply with the privacy rights and
disclosure protections established by the federal
Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the
federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
E. Include links to all of the following:
(1) The online
application to CalFresh.
(2) The online single
state application for health care.
(3) The California
Department of Public Health's website providing
zip code specific referrals to the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants
and Children.
(4) The website of a
summer lunch program authorized to participate
within the city or school district.
4. Prohibits an online application for free or reduced-price
meals to be made available or accessible online by a school
district, county office of education, or school food
service officer if the online application allows for the
information provided by an applicant to be used by a
private entity for any purpose not related to the
administration of a school food program, or if the online
application requires an applicant to waive any right or to
create a user account in order to submit the application.
5. States legislative findings and declarations that federal
guidelines require school food authorities to accept and
process applications if they are submitted to the school
food authority.
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STAFF COMMENTS
1. Need for the bill. According to the author, "SB 708 will
reduce the incidence of child hunger by establishing
uniform standards for online school meal application. This
bill will improve access to translated school meal
applications, streamline required information collected for
eligibility determination, add links to connect families to
other support programs such as CalFresh, add privacy
protections for applicants, and include clear instructions
to support homeless or migrant youth."
2. Paper vs electronic. Current law requires school districts
and county offices of education to make applications for
free or reduced-price meals available to students at all
times during each regular schoolday. This bill authorizes
school districts and county offices of education to also
make an electronic application available online. This bill
requires, if districts and county offices choose to offer
an electronic application, the electronic application to
include links to the following information that is not
currently required to be provided with the paper
application:
A. The California Department of Public Health's
website providing zip code specific referrals to the
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants and Children.
B. The website of a summer lunch program authorized
to participate within the city or school district.
Current law authorizes and encourages, but does not
require, paper applications to include information about
Medi-Cal and CalFresh. According to the author, current
practice is to provide clear instructions for families that
are homeless or migrant. This bill requires both paper and
electronic applications to include clear instructions for
families that are homeless or migrant, and requires
electronic applications to include links to applications
for CalFresh and health care, in addition to the
information cited above.
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3. Online security. This bill requires an online application
to comply with the privacy rights and disclosure
protections established by the federal Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act and the federal Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act. This bill also prohibits an online
application to be made available or accessible if the
online application allows for the information provided by
an applicant to be used by a private entity for any purpose
not related to the administration of a school food program,
or if the online application requires an applicant to waive
any right or to create a user account in order to submit
the application.
4. Eligibility determination. This bill requires an online
application to require completion of only those questions
that are necessary for determining eligibility. According
to the author, schools often use applications to collect
other information of interest to them, but that information
is not required to be included in the school meal
application. Those additional items can be skipped on a
paper application and schools are required to accept and
process the application if the information specific to free
or reduced-price meals is complete. It's possible that an
electronic application could include mandatory fields
(require an answer) for each point of information, even if
that information is not required for the free or
reduced-price meal application.
5. Related and prior legislation.
RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 608 (Gordon, 2015) among other things, requires a county
human services agency to inform households applying for
CalFresh that if the household is certified for CalFresh,
children under five years of age in the household are
income-eligible for the WIC Program, and all children in
the household are directly certified for the National
School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program
without further application. AB 608 also requires the
Department of Social Services to inform all CalFresh
households annually, prior to the end of the school year,
about the summer meal program. AB 608 is scheduled to be
heard by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on April 22.
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PRIOR LEGISLATION
AB 422 (Nazarian, Ch. 440, 2013) adds information regarding
health care coverage available through the California
Health Benefit Exchange to notifications that may be
included at the option of the school district or county
superintendent on applications for the School Lunch
Program.
AB 402 (Skinner, Ch. 504, 2011) authorizes school districts and
county offices of education to share information provided
on the School Lunch Program application with the local
agency that determines CalFresh program eligibility, or to
an agency that determines eligibility for nutrition
assistance programs. Requires each county to determine
eligibility for CalFresh based on the information shared by
a school district or county office of education and to
enroll determined eligible pupils.
SUPPORT
None on current version of the bill.
OPPOSITION
None received.
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