BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 708|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 708
Author: Mendoza (D)
Amended: 4/16/15
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/22/15
AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning,
Pan, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
SUBJECT: Pupil nutrition: free or reduced-price meals:
online applications
SOURCE: Western Center on Law & Poverty
DIGEST: 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.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires each school district or county office of education to
provide for each needy student one nutritionally adequate free
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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)
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)
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 Internet Web site (website) on
which translated applications are posted by the United
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States Department of Agriculture with instructions in that
language that inform the applicant how to submit the
application.
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:
i) The online application to CalFresh.
ii) The online single state application for health care.
iii) The California Department of Public Health's website
providing zip code specific referrals to the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and
Children.
iv) 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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Comments
1)Paper vs electronic. Existing 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.
Existing 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.
1)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.
2)Eligibility determination. This bill requires an online
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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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
1)This bill's authorization of school districts and county
offices of education to make electronic applications for free
or reduced-priced meals available will not likely result in
additional costs to the state as these would be local
decisions. Any decision to make these applications available
online would result in a cost pressure to make any changes
necessary to ensure the application complies with the
requirements in this bill.
2)The California Department of Education (CDE) indicates that it
annually makes updates to eligibility materials for the free
or reduced-priced meals program available to local educational
agencies. CDE anticipates that this bill would generate
workload between $15,000 to $17,000 General Fund to update
materials to reflect the requirements of this bill.
3)To the extent this bill increases participation in the other
public benefit programs, as intended, it could result in
additional costs to the state. For example, if an additional
50 members participate in Medi-Cal because they were
encouraged to do so by having access to information included
in the free or reduced-price meals application, the annual
impact the state could be about $66,000 in a mix of federal
and General Fund (assuming a per member, per month cost of
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$110).
SUPPORT: (Verified5/28/15)
Western Center on Law & Poverty (source)
California Association of Food Banks
California Hunger Action Coalition
California School Employees Association
California Teachers Association
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Inc.
Community Action Partnership of Orange County, Orange County
Food Bank
Courage Campaign
Orange County Food Access Coalition
San Diego Hunger Coalition
OPPOSITION: (Verified5/28/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the Western Center on Law
& Poverty, State and federal law requires direct certification
of children for the free school breakfasts and lunches if they
live in a home receiving CalFresh benefits. However, the
application process for CalFresh can take up to 30 days. Once a
household has been determined eligible for CalFresh, it could
take up to 60 days to certify a child in a household for free
meals through the school lunch program. Additionally, while the
school district is required to directly certify children for the
school lunch program, California's Department of Education has
failed to meet the federal requirement that 95% of the children
on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are directly
certified.
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
6/1/15 9:57:06
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