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AB-1508 Pupil nutrition: Breakfast After the Bell Program.(2019-2020)

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Date Published: 04/30/2019 09:00 PM
AB1508:v96#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  April 30, 2019
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 22, 2019
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 19, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1508

Introduced by Assembly Member Bonta

February 22, 2019

An act to add Section 49550.6 to the Education Code, relating to pupil nutrition.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1508, as amended, Bonta. Pupil nutrition: Breakfast After the Bell Program.
Existing law requires each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and, commencing with the 2019–20 school year, each charter school, to provide each needy pupil with one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal during each schoolday. Existing law authorizes a school district or county office of education, in order to comply with that requirement, to use funds made available through any federal or state program the purpose of which includes the provision of meals to a pupil, including, among other programs, the federal School Breakfast Program.
This bill would establish the Breakfast After the Bell Program to be administered by the State Department of Education, consisting of awarding grants, contingent upon an annual a one-time appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act, to school districts, direct-funded charter schools, and county offices of education for schoolsite breakfast after the bell programs that provide breakfast to pupils after the schoolday has begun. The bill would establish criteria for awarding grants and would require the department to collaborate with stakeholders in developing the grantmaking process. The bill would require the department to modify existing processes and systems used to collect schoolsite-level data about school nutrition programs in order to collect data about school breakfast service models at each schoolsite operating a school breakfast program.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Across California, at least two million children live in low-income households affected by food insecurity. Food insecurity means having limited, uncertain, or inconsistent access to the quality and quantity of food necessary to live a healthy life. Having sustained access to enough food is tied to positive social, physical, and mental health outcomes.
(b) Each schoolday, two million of the state’s low-income pupils miss out on the health and academic benefits of school breakfast.
(c) Given the academic, health, and fiscal benefits of school breakfast programs, all pupils, particularly socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils, should have optimal access to school breakfast programs during the schoolday.

SEC. 2.

 Section 49550.6 is added to the Education Code, to read:

49550.6.
 (a) The Breakfast After the Bell Program is hereby established and shall be administered by the department. Funding for the program shall be contingent upon an annual a one-time appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act.
(b) The objective of the program is to increase the reach and efficiency of school breakfast programs in order to impart related health and academic benefits to pupils, particularly socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils.
(c) The department shall award grants under the program to local educational agencies for programs at schoolsites within the jurisdiction of the local educational agencies.
(d) (1) In awarding grants, the department shall give first priority to local educational agencies that will use the funds to start up or expand a breakfast after the bell program at a schoolsite at which at least 60 percent of enrolled pupils are needy children.
(2) In awarding grants, the department shall give consideration to local educational agencies that meet some or all of the following criteria:
(A) The local educational agency will start up or expand a breakfast after the bell program at a schoolsite at which less than 20 percent of pupils who are needy children were served by a school breakfast program in the school year before applying for grant funds.
(B) Upon starting up or expanding a breakfast after the bell program at a schoolsite with a grant award, the local educational agency agrees to operate that program for a period of at least three years.
(C) In applying for the grant award, the local educational agency demonstrates preparedness to implement a breakfast after the bell program.
(e) A grant awarded under this section may be used for any costs associated with the startup or expansion of a breakfast after the bell program in accordance with allowable uses of the schoolsite’s cafeteria fund.
(f) Participation in the program shall not prohibit a schoolsite from also making breakfast available to pupils before the schoolday begins for a majority of pupils enrolled at the schoolsite.
(g) The department shall collaborate with stakeholders, including, but not limited to, school food service department leadership and child nutrition advocates, experts, in developing the grantmaking process.
(h) To ensure accountability for the effective use of Breakfast After the Bell Program grant funds and to track improvement among schoolsites that receive grant funds relative to schoolsites that do not receive grant funds, the department shall modify existing processes and systems used to collect schoolsite-level data about school nutrition programs in order to collect data about school breakfast service models at each schoolsite operating a school breakfast program.
(i) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Breakfast after the bell program” means a schoolsite providing a nutritionally adequate breakfast that is available to pupils after the schoolday has begun for a majority of pupils enrolled at the schoolsite and allowing pupils to consume that breakfast after the schoolday has begun for a majority of pupils enrolled at the schoolsite.
(2) “Cafeteria fund” means the nonprofit school food service account, as defined in Section 210.2 of Title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(3) “Local educational agency” means a school district, direct-funded charter school, or county office of education.
(4) “Nutritionally adequate breakfast” has the same meaning as described in subdivision (a) of Section 49553.