BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 839
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Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 839 (Brownley) - As Amended: April 26, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:7-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires school districts to submit a report to the
State Department of Education (SDE) and publicly disclose
information regarding participation in the federal School
Breakfast (SB) Program, as specified. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires each school district to submit a report to the SDE on
each noncharter, public schoolsites within the district that
did not operate a federal SB program in the previous year and
hear the results of the report at two school district board
meetings. This measure further requires the report to contain
specified information regarding eligibility, participation in
the National School Lunch Program, and reasons for not
participating in the SB program.
2)Requires each school district to adopt a resolution and submit
it to the SDE that indicates which schoolsites do not operate
a federal SB program and their reasons for nonoperation. The
resolution must also indicate the public schools that will
begin to operate the program and provide a timeline for
implementation.
3)Requires school districts to submit a report to SDE that
includes all of the following for each schoolsite in the
district: (a) the number of pupils enrolled at the schoolsite
who are eligible to receive free, reduced-price school meals;
(b) the average daily participation in the federal National
School Lunch Program of low-income pupils at the schoolsite;
and (c) consideration of options including, but not limited
to, alternative service locations, service times, and payment
structures for the federal SB program. The school district is
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required to hear this report at two school board meetings.
4)Requires school districts to adopt a resolution that indicates
which public schoolsites within the district operate a federal
SB program and will continue to operate it without changes to
service locations, service times, or payment structures and
articulate the reasons and fiscal analysis for not making
changes to the program. This measure also requires districts
to report on schoolsites who will continue to operate the
program with these specified changes.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Annual GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs to school
districts, likely between $2 million and $4 million, to meet
all of the reporting and public disclosure requirements of
this bill. In 2009-10, there were 1,021 school districts in
the state.
2)The 2010 Budget Act allocated approximately $439.6 million for
the SB program. Of this amount, approximately $399 million is
federal funding and $40.6 million is GF/98.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The federal SB program is a federal and state funded
program helping schools to provide nutritious morning meals so
students enter the classroom ready to focus on the day's
coursework. The program provides 25% of a child's daily
dietary needs and must meet the United States Department of
Agriculture nutrition standards. Children are served free,
reduced-price, or full-price meals depending on their family
income. A student whose household income is between 130% and
185% of the federal poverty guidelines is eligible to receive
reducedprice meals. For a household of four during the 201011
school year, an annual income of $28,665 is at 130% of the
federal poverty guidelines.
School breakfast costs are subsidized through federal and
state funding so all can participate. Both the federal and
state governments offer a per-meal reimbursement for
breakfast. The reimbursement rates for the 2010-11 fiscal
year are as follows:
-------------------------------------
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| | Free |Reduced-Pri|Paid |
| | | ce | |
|------------+------+-----------+-----|
|Federal |$1.48 | $1.18 |$0.26|
| | | | |
|------------+------+-----------+-----|
|State |$0.22 | $0.22 |N/A |
-------------------------------------
According to the author, "Children who eat breakfast have
healthier diets, perform better in school and are less likely
to be overweight or obese. Today, millions of lowincome kids
in California attend schools that do not offer the
federallyfunded SB program or that operate the program but
arent reaching enough students. Currently, nearly 750 public
schools in California, which enroll over 54,000 lowincome
students, do not offer SBP. While 91% of Californias public
schools do operate the SB program, over 2.3 million (70%) of
Californias lowincome students in public schools do not
participate in the program."
This bill requires school districts to submit a report to SDE
and publicly disclose information regarding participation in
the federal SB program, as specified.
2)Timeline and requirements in the bill . Currently, the bill
requires school districts to provide two separate reports and
resolutions to the SDE. The reports and resolutions provide
information on schoolsites that do not operate the federal SB
program and schoolsites that do operate the program. The
author may wish to consider whether or not it is more
manageable for a school district to provide one report and one
resolution to the SDE. Likewise, this measure requires a
school district to hear and discuss the report at two separate
board meetings. This seems excessive and the author may
consider limiting this requirement to one regularly scheduled
board meeting.
This measure also requires every school district, even if it
offers the SB program, to report and disclose information, as
specified. The author may wish to consider limiting the
requirements of this bill to school districts that do not
currently offer an SB program.
As currently drafted, the bill does not provide a timeline for
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completion and submission of the reports and resolutions.
Likewise, it is not clear if school districts must complete
these requirements on a one-time or annual basis. The
committee suggests the author clarify these two issues.
3)Current law requires the SDE to award grants on a competitive
basis of up to $15,000 per schoolsite for nonrecurring
expenses incurred in initiating or expanding a school
breakfast program. In addition, the law requires SDE, in
making school breakfast grants, to give preference to school
districts and county superintendents of schools that meet
certain criteria, including submitting a plan to SDE regarding
start-up or expansion, the established use of public and
private resources to carry out expansion of the program, and
an agreement to operate the breakfast program or summer food
program for a period of not less than three years. The 2010
Budget Act allocated $1 million GF/98 for this program. In
April 2011, SDE made the application for this program
available and school districts have until May 2011 to submit,
with notification of an award expected to occur in June 2011.
4)Unpaid K-12 mandates . According to the Legislative Analyst's
Office, the state owes approximately $3.4 billion in K-12
mandate costs for prior years. Prior to the 2010 Budget Act,
the state deferred mandate payments for several years with the
promise of making the payments to school districts in future
years. As a result, districts did not received payment for
annual services they were required to conduct.
a) SB 90 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter
7, Statutes of 2011 allocated $80 million GF/98 to school
districts for annual K-12 mandate costs; the state,
however, still owes school districts for the prior year
costs.
5)Previous legislation . AB 1966 (Garcia) required schoolsites
that enroll more than 400 pupils and meet the
qualifications of federal severe need reimbursement to offer
breakfast, beginning with the 2010-11 school year. This bill
was held on this committee's suspense file in May 2008.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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