HB 1561 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO SCHOOL MEALS.

Summary

Beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, requires public charter schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to provide free meals to students whose family income is no more than three hundred per cent of the federal poverty level. Appropriates funds. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 15, 2026 Last action Feb 17, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

HB1561 → HB1561_HD1 · 2 edits

MINOR

This bill version updates the effective date of the free school meal mandate from July 1, 2026, to July 1, 3000, and adjusts internal tracking metadata. While the core requirement to provide free meals to students in public charter schools remains, the delay in the effective date significantly postpones when this funding and obligation must begin.

Scope change

The bill's applicability timeline was extended by approximately 974 years, delaying the implementation of the free meal mandate for public charter schools.

TIMELINE

The effective date for the free school meal mandate was changed from July 1, 2026, to July 1, 3000.

TECHNICAL

Internal document metadata, including file names, revision numbers, and timestamp records, were updated to reflect the new version.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

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Key actions

Committee

Feb 17, 2026

Committee

Reported from EDN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 314-26) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to FIN.

lower

Feb 10, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on EDN recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 10 Ayes: Representative(s) Woodson, La Chica, Amato, Evslin, Garrett, Kapela, Kila, Olds, Muraoka, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Jan 26, 2026

Committee

Referred to EDN, FIN, referral sheet 1

lower

Jan 21, 2026

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

Jan 15, 2026

Introduced

Prefiled.

lower

29 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

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