BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2555 (Carter) - Summer Food Service Waivers.
Amended: As introduced Policy Vote: Education 6-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: June 25, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2555 changes the deadline by which a school
district is required to submit a waiver request for the Summer
Food Service (SFS) Program for Children to no later than 60
days, rather than 30 days, before the last regular meeting of
the State Board of Education (SBE) before the start of the
summer school session for which the waiver is sought.
Fiscal Impact: Very minor potential General Fund costs for
partial meal reimbursement, to the extent that more schools
participate in the SFS Program.
Background: Existing law requires public schools to provide
needy students at least one nutritious meal on each school day,
including summer school session days. School districts may
request a one-year waiver to the food service requirement for
summer school; they will be granted a waiver if they meet one of
three conditions: 1) a Summer Food Service Program for children
is located within one-half mile of an elementary school and
within one mile of a middle school or high school; 2) serving
meals during summer school session would result in a financial
loss to the school district in an amount that is equal to
one-third of its net cash resources; or, 3) the entire summer
school day is less than two hours.
A school district requesting a waiver for the SFS Program must
submit its request to the SBE no later than 30 days before the
last regular meeting of the SBE before the start of the summer
school session for which the waiver is sought.
Existing law further requires that the SBE and the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) provide leadership to
AB 2555 (Carter)
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encourage and support schools to participate in the SFS Program.
(EC � 49548)
Proposed Law: This bill requires that a school district seeking
a waiver for the SFS Program submit its request to the SBE no
later than 60 days before the last regular SBE meeting before
the start of the summer school session for which the waiver is
sought, in order to give the Department of Education (CDE) more
time to provide technical assistance to the district to
determine whether a waiver is needed.
Staff Comments: Existing law requires the CDE, which staffs to
the SBE and SPI, to provide leadership to encourage and support
schools to participate in the SFS Program. As part of that duty,
the CDE provides technical assistance to schools to implement
their summer food programs. When school districts request a
waiver due to a perceived inability or hardship to participate,
the CDE conducts a financial analysis of the district to
determine whether it qualifies for the waiver, and tries to
assist the district in coming up with alternatives to the
waiver.
The CDE has indicated that having 30 days extra time to work
with schools seeking waivers to try to find a way for them to
participate in the program instead (when the district's concerns
are fiscal), would be helpful to the effort of feeding more
needy pupils during summer school sessions. According to the
department, waiver requests have decreased in recent years. This
year, the combined total waiver requests (if approved) would
have affected fewer than 100 students statewide, and would have
a negligible fiscal impact.
According to the CDE, the requirement on school districts to
provide meals, as specified, allows them to use any of three
different programs to operate their summer school meal program:
the Summer Food Service Program, the Seamless Summer Feeding
Option, or the National School Lunch and School Breakfast
Program. The latter two programs receive a state reimbursement
of 21 cents per meal served.
AB 2555 (Carter)
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