School meals: free or reduced-price meals.

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 and the federal National School Lunch Program, or to provide those meals at the expense of the school district or county office of education. This bill would require a school district, county office of education, or charter school that does not participate in the federal National School Lunch Program or the federal School Breakfast Program to provide adequate space for children to consume those meals. The bill would require such a school district, county office of education, or charter school to annually report to the State Department of Education an alternative meal program each of its schoolsites will follow to ensure that each needy pupil is provided with a free or reduced-price meal, and would require the department to provide a form to report this information. The bill would require the department to conduct onsite reviews of schoolsites to verify a school district's, county office of education's, or charter school's compliance with the federal meal benefit issuance requirements and meal pattern regulations under the federal National School Lunch Program or the federal School Breakfast Program. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature the results of the onsite reviews and a list of noncompliant schoolsites. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 47613.5 of the Education Code proposed by AB 842 to be operative only if this bill and AB 842 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 49550 of the Education Code proposed by AB 842 and AB 1595 to be operative only if this bill and either or both AB 842 and AB 1595 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. 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.