BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Jack Scott, Chair
2007-2008 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1369
AUTHOR: Cedillo
AMENDED: March 27, 2008
FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: April 9, 2008
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Lynn Lorber
NOTE : This bill has been referred to the Committees on
Education and Health. A "do pass" motion should include
referral to the Committee on Health.
SUBJECT : Application for Free and Reduced-Price Meals
SUMMARY
This bill gives school districts the option to skip a step
of the Express Enrollment process (to determine Medi-Cal
eligibility) that districts must currently take when
processing applications for free school meals.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1) Provides that children with family incomes at or below
130% of federal poverty guidelines are eligible for
free meals and children with family incomes at or
below 185% of federal poverty guidelines are eligible
for reduced-price meals. A family of 3 with an annual
income of $31,765 or less would be eligible for
reduced-price meals, and a family of 3 with an annual
income of $22,321 or less would be eligible for free
meals.
2) Establishes a process (Express Enrollment) to expedite
Medi-Cal enrollment for children receiving free
lunches through the National School Lunch Program.
This process is not an option for children receiving
reduced-price meals.
3) Gives school districts and county superintendents the
option to include in the National School Lunch Program
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application packet or notification of eligibility for
the National School Lunch Program, among other things,
a request for parental consent for the child to
participate in the Medi-Cal program and have the
information on the school lunch application shared
with the entity designated by the Department of Health
Services to make an accelerated determination of
Medi-Cal eligibility.
4) With regard to accelerated determination for Medi-Cal,
prohibits a school, if the school is aware that a
child already has an active Medi-Cal or Healthy
Families case, from processing the application for an
accelerated
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determination but requires the school to forward that
application to the local agency that determines
Medi-Cal eligibility.
5) Requires the school to notify the parent of the
child's ineligibility for accelerated Medic-Cal and
that the child's application will be forwarded to the
county. The notice must include a statement, with
contact information, advising the parent to contact
the Medi-Cal or Healthy Families programs regarding
the child's eligibility status.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Gives school districts the option of not processing
the National School Lunch Program application for an
accelerated determination and not forwarding it to the
entity designated by the State Department of Health
Care Services to make an accelerated determination,
when the school has data that indicates:
a) A school lunch application has been
submitted for the child.
b) The parent or guardian has consented to
share the information on the application.
c) The child already has an active Medi-Cal or
Healthy Families case.
2) Adds to the application for free school meals, at the
option of the school district or county superintendent
of schools, notification to parents that if the school
district possess data indicating that child already
has active Medi-Cal or Healthy Families case, the
information on the school lunch application will not
be shared and that the applicant will have an
opportunity to refute the school district's
determination that the child already has a Medi-Cal or
Healthy Families case.
3) Requires the parent or guardian to be given the
opportunity to refute the determination of the school
district and if it is verified that the child does not
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have an active Medi-Cal or Healthy Families case,
requires the application to be processed for an
accelerated Medi-Cal determination and forwarded to
the entity designated to make an accelerated
determination of Medi-Cal eligibility.
4) Makes technical change to update the name of
Department of Health Care Services.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Skipping a step . Currently, schools must forward an
application for free school meals to the local
Medi-Cal agency even when the school knows the student
already has an active Medi-Cal case. The local
Medi-Cal agency then must process the application
until it verifies the student does indeed have an
active Medi-Cal case. This process is duplicative and
skipping this step will not jeopardize a child's
Medi-Cal eligibility or receipt of Medi-Cal services.
2) Cost savings . Schools currently are not required to
process a school meal application if the school
believes the child has an active Medi-Cal or Healthy
Families case, but are still required to forward the
application to the local Medi-Cal agency. By skipping
the step of forwarding the application to the local
Medi-Cal agency, schools should realize some cost
savings. A greater savings should be realized by local
Medi-Cal agencies for the reduction in the duplicative
workload.
3) Related legislation . AB 2875 (Furutani, 2008) makes
mandatory the current option to modify the request for
parental consent to share information to allow the
local Medi-Cal agency to inform schools when follow-up
is needed to complete the Medi-Cal application
process.
AB 2875 is set for hearing in the Assembly Health for
April 8, 2008.
AB 2300 (Laird, 2008) directs the California
Department of Education in consultation with the
California Department of Health Care Services to
develop and implement a process to use Medi-Cal
participation data to verify and directly certify
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children into the National School Lunch and School
Breakfast programs. AB 2300 passed out of the
Assembly Education Committee on a 10 - 0 vote on April
2, 2008, and is pending in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
SUPPORT
100% Campaign
Los Angeles Unified School District
OPPOSITION
None on file.