automatic News for 11-23-2019

Text of S. 1119: Anti-Lunch Shaming Act of 2019

A BILL.To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to prohibit the stigmatization of children who are unable to pay for meals. The school breakfast program established by section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966.; and. Has outstanding credit that was extended by a school food authority for a lunch or breakfast at the school. The public identification or stigmatization of a covered child, such as by requiring the covered child to wear a wristband or display a hand stamp to identify the covered child as a covered child; or. 

Dispose of a lunch or breakfast after it has been served to the covered child. A school food authority may permit a requirement that a covered child deliver a letter addressed to a parent or guardian of the covered child that contains a communication described in item, subject to the condition that the letter shall not be distributed to the covered child in a manner that stigmatizes the covered child. A)to the maximum extent practicable, an application for a free or reduced price lunch under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act is distributed-. The local educational agency liaison designated under section 722(g)(1)(J)(ii) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act(1)(J)(ii to ensure that homeless children and youths eligible to receive free lunches and breakfasts under section 9(b)(12)(A)(iv) of the Richard B. 

Russell National School Lunch Act(12)(A)(iv receive those free lunches and breakfasts; and. The State agency responsible for administering the State plans under parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act to ensure that foster children eligible to receive free lunches and breakfasts under section 9(b)(12)(A)(vii) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act(12)(A)(vii receive those free lunches and breakfasts; and. 3)a school food authority that participates in the school lunch program or the school breakfast program under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act or section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966., respectively-. Shall provide to a child who requests a lunch or breakfast a lunch or breakfast, regardless of whether the child-. 

Shall not provide to a child who qualifies for a free or reduced price lunch or breakfast an alternate meal that is not provided to students generally; and. 

Sen. Collins’ anti-lunch shaming bill passes U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA – Senator Susan Collins’ bill that bans schools in the country from singling out children who can’t afford school lunch is one step closer to becoming law. The anti-lunch shaming bill that Sen. Collins authored with Senator Tom Udall passed the U.S. Senate as part of a larger funding bill by an 84-9 vote. The bill would ban practices that some schools have requiring children who can’t afford lunch to get their hand stamps or do extra chores because parents or guardians do not pay their school meal bill. 

Governor Janet Mills signed an anti-lunch shaming bill into law earlier this year that would prevent a school from refusing a meal as a form of disciplinary action, or openly identifying or stigmatizing a student who cannot pay for their school lunch or who owes money to the school lunch program. According to Collins’ office, the bill would require that school staff communicate outstanding unpaid school lunch fees with the parents or guardians, not with the child; and take additional steps to ensure that all students who qualify for free and reduced meals are efficiently enrolled to receive them. According to a 2014 report by the USDA, nearly half of all school districts in the nation used some form of lunch shaming to compel parents to pay for their child’s school meals. Often, students’ hot lunches are taken away and replaced with an alternative meal, such as a cold cheese sandwich. In other cases, children are forced to do chores in front of their peers, made to wear wristbands or handstamps declaring their inability to pay or have their lunch thrown out as their friends and classmates looked on. 

Now that the bill has passed the U.S. Senate it will now go to conference to be reconciled. Some school officials expressed concern about unpaid student lunch debt exploding under Gov. Mills’ law. Some school districts in Maine say they have school lunch debt in the tens of thousands of dollars. 

The passage of similar legislation in Denver, Colorado sent lunch debt soaring from $13,000 to more than $350,000 in a year after some parents stopped paying for lunches altogether. 

Jersey City Board of Education puts possible ‘lunch shaming’ policy on hold

The Jersey City Board of Education has put on hold a proposed policy that could potentially shame students with outstanding lunch debt. BOE President Sudhan Thomas requested that the policy be put on hold and asked the board to examine the lunch debt policies of other urban districts like Camden and Paterson. Lyons said during Monday’s Board of Education caucus that the policy is only to show the state that the district is trying to recoup the money it is owed from last year – some $65,000. Under the proposed policy, parents who haven’t paid for their children’s lunches would receive two notices over the course of three weeks alerting them of the debt. Eight days after the second notice is sent out, the child would stop receiving the hot lunch and be given the basic lunch. 

If the debt can’t be resolved or the parent does not meet with their child’s principal to discuss the debt, parents could be reported to the state Department of Children and Families, the draft policy states. Over two thirds of the district’s 30,000 students qualify for the free or reduced lunch program, he added. The Cherry Hill School District in August came under fire for considering serving tuna sandwiches to students with a $10 lunch debt or banning students from the prom if their debt grew to over $75. The district also refused to accept a donation to wipe away $14,000 in lunch debt. In Trenton, legislative efforts are underway to crack down on such policies. 

The state Assembly Education Committee on Monday approved a proposal to prohibit schools from identifying students with lunch debt or serving them alternative meals. The committee also agreed on a plan to distribute $4.5 million in state aid to pay for reduced lunches. Parent and Jersey City special education teacher Maria Siquijor-Enriquez doesn’t want kids to have different lunches just because their parents failed to pay.