BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1781
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Date of Hearing: April 11, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1781 (Brownley) - As Introduced: February 21, 2012
SUBJECT : School meals: free or reduced-priced meals.
SUMMARY : Requires school district governing boards and county
superintendents to ensure, in their plan submitted to the
California Department of Education (CDE), that pupils have
access to a free or reduced-price meal at any serving line that
the school food services program operates, manages, or from
which the school food services program receives revenue; and,
makes Legislative findings and declarations that pupils who do
not participate in the meal program are missing out on the
health and nutrition benefits of the complete, balanced school
meal.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the governing board of each school district and each
county superintendent of schools to formulate a plan, which
shall be mailed to the CDE for its approval, that will ensure
that children eligible to receive free or reduced priced meals
and milk shall not be treated differently from other children.
These plans shall ensure each of the following:
a) Unless otherwise specified, the names of the children
shall not be published, posted, or announced in any manner,
or used for any other purpose other than the National
School Lunch Program (NSLP).
b) There shall be no overt identification of any of the
children by the use of special tokens or tickets or by any
other means.
c) The children shall not be required to work for their
meals or milk.
d) The children shall not be required to use a separate
dining area, go through a separate serving line, enter the
dining area through a separate entrance, or consume their
meals or milk at a different time. (Education Code 49557)
2)Requires School Food Authorities and local educational
agencies of schools participating in the NSLP, SBP or Special
Milk Program or of commodity only schools to take all actions
that are necessary to insure compliance with the following
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nondiscrimination practices for children eligible to receive
free and reduced price meals or free milk:
a) The names of the children shall not be published, posted
or announced in any manner;
b) There shall be no overt identification of any of the
children by the use of special tokens or tickets or by any
other means;
c) The children shall not be required to work for their
meals or milk;
d) The children shall not be required to use a separate
dining area, go through a separate serving line, enter the
dining area through a separate entrance or consume their
meals or milk at a different time;
e) When more than one lunch or breakfast or type of milk is
offered, the children shall have the same choice of meals
or milk that is available to those children who pay the
full price for their meal or milk. (Code of Federal
Regulation 7 Section 245.8).
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill requires that students eligible for free
or reduced-priced school meals have access to those meals at any
serving line that the school food services program operates,
manages or from which the school food services program receives
revenue. This means all cafeteria serving lines, food kiosks
and food carts throughout the school must offer a NSLP or SBP
eligible meal.
According to the author, during mealtime at public schools in
California, students face short lunch periods, crowded
cafeterias and pressure to impress their peers. While public
schools in California are required to make a free or reduced
price nutritious meal available to qualifying students, there is
no requirement that these meals be available in all food service
lines. The practice of having lines that do not offer the
reimbursable school meal and only offer � la carte items for
purchase identifies students that must go elsewhere to receive
their school meal. Consequently, many low-income students face
painful stigma and try to avoid participating in the school meal
programs, leading them to purchase less nutritious � la carte
items, or even going without a meal to avoid the embarrassment
of receiving a free meal.
Among the 3.3 million California public school students who are
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eligible for a free or reduced-price meal, 70% participate in
the NSLP and only 30% participate in the SBP. That translates to
over one million low-income students missing out on the benefits
of lunch, and well over two million low-income students missing
out on the benefits of breakfast. Because students avoid
participating in the meal programs out of fear of being labeled
"poor," stigma in the cafeteria, particularly due to � la
carte-only lines, must be decreased.
According to the California Food Policy Advocates, "Students are
very sensitive to how they are perceived by their peers and peer
pressure. When the cafeteria environment is structured to
inadvertently identify students in need of a free meal, the
stigma and embarrassment is enough to force some students to
skip the meal. In Janet Poppendieck's book, Free for All: Fixing
School Food in America, a Santa Cruz high school alumni
explained,
"Our campus was big and split by the upper level and lower
level. The kitchen was on the lower level and you could
only get the free or reduced lunch on the lower level. My
school was very segregated in that white kids ate upstairs
�from the � la carte service] and Mexicans ate downstairs
�from the reimbursable meal service]. I was eligible for
free lunch but chose not to get it, because I was
embarrassed"
If students don't succumb to peer pressure to purchase � la
carte items, they often choose to go hungry rather than risk
identification as low-income by participating in the school meal
program."
Existing School District Practice . Under current law, school
districts are required to protect the identity of students who
are eligible for free and reduced-priced meals, and shall not
require those students to receive their meals in a separate
line, or through the use of special tickets or tokens. Some
schools however, do serve the NSLP meal in one line and sell a
la carte meals in another line. This meets the requirements of
existing law, in that it does not segregate free and
reduced-priced eligible students from students who pay full
price, however, in some instances it does segregate students
because few students are paying full price for the NSLP meal and
thus the only students in the NSLP meal line are free and
reduced-price eligible students.
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Currently, when a NSLP meal is sold to a student, a school
employee must verify that all the components of the meal are
offered and also verify which ones are served to the student.
Some districts intentionally serve these meals in one area to
minimize the number of staff required to verify the free and
reduced-priced eligible student meals. This varies across the
state, as each school district (and school) has a different
point of sale (POS) system. Some schools have an electronic
system where students use their student ID to scan at the POS,
while other schools rely on student rosters to verify
eligibility for free and reduced-price meals. Because school
district POS systems vary so widely, implementation of this bill
could be challenging to some districts. Some argue that schools
currently using a roster system may actually end up overtly
indentifying free and reduced-price eligible students by
checking their eligibility with a roster in a setting outside
the main cafeteria. In addition, others argue that using a
roster system in multiple food lines will allow students to go
through multiple lines and receive multiple meals in one day.
Modernizing Facilities . This bill requires all school meal
lines, food carts and kiosks to sell the NSLP meal. This may
require many of these facilities to be modernized to have the
capacity to provide such a service. While school districts have
access to federal funds that could be used for such
modernization, the funding is not consistent and some will have
to make these changes within their existing budget. In recent
years, small amounts of grant funding have been available for
modernization of school meal facilities. It is unclear whether
this funding will be available in the future, and on a scale
that will support all the schools that need such modernization.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Advancement Project
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Church IMPACT
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California School Health Centers Association
Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program
Children Now
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Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087