Bill Text: NJ A1821 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires school districts to take certain actions in circumstances when school meal bill is in arrears; prohibits shaming students with school meal bills in arrears; prohibits certain district actions in collecting unpaid school meal fees.
Sponsorship: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 17-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-11 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee [A1821 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-A1821-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
220th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2022 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman PAMELA R. LAMPITT
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
Assemblyman LOUIS D. GREENWALD
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
Assemblywoman MILA M. JASEY
District 27 (Essex and Morris)
Assemblywoman BRITNEE N. TIMBERLAKE
District 34 (Essex and Passaic)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywomen Reynolds-Jackson, McKnight, Quijano, Assemblymen Benson, Danielsen, Caputo, Thomson, Assemblywoman Speight, Assemblyman Mejia, Assemblywomen Mosquera, Murphy and Lopez
SYNOPSIS
Requires school districts to take certain actions in circumstances when school meal bill is in arrears; prohibits shaming students with school meal bills in arrears; prohibits certain district actions in collecting unpaid school meal fees.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning school meals and amending P.L.2015, c.15.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) is amended to read as follows:
1. a. In the event that a school district determines that a student's school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears, the district shall contact the student's parent or guardian to provide notice of the arrearage and shall provide the parent or guardian with a period of 10 school days to pay the amount due. If the student's parent or guardian has not made full payment by the end of the 10 school days, then the district shall again contact the student's parent or guardian to provide notice [that school breakfast or school lunch, as applicable, shall not be served to the student beginning one week from the date of the second notice unless payment is made in full] of any action to be taken by the school district in response to a student's school breakfast or school lunch bill being in arrears.
A school district shall report at least biannually to the Department of Agriculture the number of students who are denied school breakfast or school lunch pursuant to this section.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a school district to deny or restrict access to school breakfast or school lunch to a student whose school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears.
b Prior to initially contacting the parent or guardian to provide notice of a school breakfast or school lunch bill in arrears as provided in subsection a. of this section, the school district shall exhaust all options and methods to directly certify the student for a free or reduced priced meal. If the school district is not able to directly certify the student, the school district shall provide the parent or guardian with a paper copy of, or an electronic link to, an application for the free or reduced priced meal program with the notification of the arrearage and contact the parent or guardian to encourage application submission.
c. A school district shall ensure that a student whose school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears is not shamed, treated differently, forced to go to the end of the food line, or served a meal that differs from what a student whose school breakfast or school lunch bill is not in arrears would receive. This subsection shall not prohibit a school district from serving an alternative reimbursable meal to a student who may need one for dietary or religious reasons.
d. A school district shall not permit any action directed at a student to collect unpaid school meal fees. A school district may
attempt to collect unpaid school meal fees from a parent or guardian, but shall not threaten to make a child protective services report solely in regard to the arrearage.
(cf: P.L.2018, c.27)
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the first full school year following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
In February of 2015, the Legislature enacted P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) to establish a process that a school district must follow prior to denying a school breakfast or a school lunch to a student due to the fact that the student's school breakfast or school lunch bill was in arrears. The purpose of the law was to ensure that a student was not suddenly denied a school breakfast or school lunch, and that the student's parent or guardian received proper notice of the arrearage and an adequate opportunity to address the arrearage prior to the school district making a determination to deny the student school meals.
This bill clarifies that nothing in section 1 of P.L.2015, c.15 (C.18A:33-21) requires a school district to deny school breakfast or school lunch to a student whose bill is in arrears, but rather to provide adequate notice and opportunity to the student's parent or guardian if the district determines to take such an action. The bill amends that same section of law to require that, if a student's parent or guardian has not made full payment of a student's school breakfast or school lunch bill in arrears by the end of 10 school days, a school district must provide notice of any action to be taken by the school district in response to a student's school breakfast or school lunch bill being in arrears.
The bill also amends that section of law to include a number of provisions regarding a school district's responsibilities when a student's school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears. Pursuant to the bill, prior to contacting the parent to provide notice of the school meal bill in arrears, the school district is required to exhaust all options and methods to directly certify the student for the free or reduced priced meal program. If the school district is not able to directly certify the student, when the district sends the notification of the arrearage to the parent, it must include a paper copy of, or an electronic link to, an application for the school meal program and contact the parent to encourage submission of the application.
The bill includes a provision that requires school districts to ensure that a student whose school breakfast or school lunch bill is in arrears is not shamed, treated differently, forced to go to the end of the food line, or served a meal that differs from what a student whose bill is not in arrears would receive. Under the bill, a district may not permit any action directed at a student to collect unpaid school meal fees. Districts may attempt to collect unpaid school meal fees from parents, but the districts are not permitted to threaten to make a child protective services report solely in regard to the arrearage.
