Bill Text: CA AB508 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Pupil nutrition: reduced-price meals.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Failed) 2022-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB508 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB508-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 508
| Introduced by Assembly Members Luz Rivas and Lorena Gonzalez (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Kalra) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bauer-Kahan, Boerner Horvath, and Eduardo Garcia) |
February 09, 2021 |
An act to amend Section 49550 of the Education Code, relating to pupil nutrition.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 508, as introduced, Luz Rivas.
Pupil nutrition: reduced-price meals.
Existing law requires a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining a kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, and authorizes the school district or county superintendent of schools to use funds available from any federal or state program to comply with that requirement, as provided. Existing law generally requires a school district or a county superintendent of schools to provide breakfast and lunch free of charge to all pupils at a very high poverty school, as defined.
This bill would require a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining a kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a pupil, eligible to receive a reduced-priced meal, that meal free of charge. By creating a
new duty on a school district or a county superintendent of schools, the bill would create a state-mandated program. The bill would require the state to provide sufficient funding to school districts and county offices of education to cover the cost of providing meals free of charge to pupils from households that would otherwise be required to provide a copayment for these meals. To comply with the above, the bill would authorize a school district or county office of education to use funds made available through any federal, to the extent allowed, or state program relating to the provision of meals to pupils, as provided.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that
the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 49550 of the Education Code is amended to read:49550.
(a) (1) Notwithstanding any other law, a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, shall provide each needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday, except for family daycare homes that shall be reimbursed for 75 percent of the meals served.(2) A school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, shall provide a pupil, eligible to receive a reduced-price meal, the meal
described in paragraph (1) free of charge. The state shall provide sufficient funding to school districts and county offices of education to cover the cost of providing meals free of charge to pupils from households that would otherwise be required to provide a copayment for these meals.
(b) To comply with subdivision (a), a school district or county office of education may use funds made available through any federal federal, to the extent allowed, or state program the purpose of which includes the provision of meals to a pupil, including the federal School Breakfast Program, the federal National School Lunch Program, the federal Summer Food Service Program, the federal Seamless Summer Option, or the state meal program, or may do
so at the expense of the school district or county office of education.
(c) For purposes of this article, “schoolday” means any day that pupils in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, are attending school for purposes of classroom instruction, including, but not limited to, pupil attendance at minimum days, state-funded preschool, transitional kindergarten, summer school including incoming kindergarten pupils, extended school year days, and Saturday school sessions.
