BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 708|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 708
Author: Mendoza (D)
Amended: 8/27/15
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
SENATE FLOOR: 38-0, 6/1/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Huff, Jackson, Lara,
Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Runner, Stone,
Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hueso, Morrell
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 9/01/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Pupil nutrition: free or reduced-price meals:
online applications
SOURCE: Author
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.
SB 708
Page 2
Assembly Amendments modify terminology, changing "school food
service officer" to "school food authority," and clarify which
Internet link is to be included in electronic applications for
free or reduced-price meals.
ANALYSIS:
Existing 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)
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)
SB 708
Page 3
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 authority 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
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 (DPH)
web page entitled "About WIC and How to Apply," or
SB 708
Page 4
another web page identified by the DPH that connects
families 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 authority
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.
Background
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:
1)The DPH's web page entitled "About WIC and How to Apply," or
another web page identified by the DPH that connects families
to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants and Children.
2)The website of a summer lunch program authorized to
participate within the city or school district.
SB 708
Page 5
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.
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.
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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SB 708
Page 6
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this bill
imposes:
Potential Proposition 98/General Fund (GF) reimbursable state
mandated costs, likely minor, for school districts and county
offices of education to provide paper copies of free or
reduced priced meal applications available at all times during
the regular school day. Current law requires local education
agencies (LEAs) to provide access to free or reduced price
meal applications but does not explicitly specify that "paper"
copies shall be made available. This requirement could result
in minor printing costs that may be eligible for state
reimbursement.
Unknown, likely minor, Proposition 98/GF cost pressure for
school districts and county offices of education to update
online free and reduced price meal applications (if they chose
to provide applications in this format). Whether or not an
LEA provides applications through an online format is a local
decision and, therefore, the LEA cannot seek reimbursement for
these activities.
Unknown state and federal costs to the extent already
qualified families are connected to CalFresh, CalWORKs,
Medi-Cal and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants, and Children Program as a result of this bill.
General Fund administrative costs to the California Department
of Education, in the range of $15,000 to $17,000, to update
eligibility materials for the free and reduced price meal
program to reflect the requirements of this bill.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/1/15)
None received
SB 708
Page 7
OPPOSITION: (Verified9/1/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 9/01/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Harper
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
9/1/15 20:15:41
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