No Shame at School Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1907 To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to prohibit the stigmatization of children who are unable to pay for school meals, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 19, 2019 Ms. SMITH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry A BILL To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to prohibit the stigmatization of children who are unable to pay for school meals, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No Shame at School 4 Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. MANDATORY CERTIFICATION. 6 Section 9(b)(5) of the Richard B. Russell National 7 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(5)) is amended— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1907 IS (1) in the paragraph heading, by striking ‘‘DIS- 1 CRETIONARY’’ and inserting ‘‘MANDATORY’’; and 2 (2) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 3 by striking ‘‘may’’ and inserting ‘‘shall’’. 4 SEC. 3. RETROACTIVE REIMBURSEMENT. 5 Section 9(b)(9) of the Richard B. Russell National 6 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(9)) is amended by 7 adding at the end the following: 8 ‘‘(D) RETROACTIVE REIMBURSEMENT.— 9 ‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this subpara- 10 graph: 11 ‘‘(I) CHANGE IN ELIGIBILITY.— 12 The term ‘change in eligibility’ means, 13 with respect to eligibility for the 14 school lunch program under this 15 Act— 16 ‘‘(aa) a change from eligi- 17 bility for reduced price meals to 18 eligibility for free meals; and 19 ‘‘(bb) a change from non- 20 eligibility to eligibility for free or 21 reduced price meals. 22 ‘‘(II) MEAL CLAIM.—The term 23 ‘meal claim’ means any documenta- 24 tion provided by a school food author- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1907 IS ity to a State agency in order to re- 1 ceive reimbursement under this Act 2 for the cost of a meal served to a 3 child by the school food authority. 4 ‘‘(III) PREVIOUSLY SUB- 5 MITTED.—The term ‘previously sub- 6 mitted’, with respect to a meal claim, 7 means a meal claim submitted on or 8 after the retroactive date. 9 ‘‘(IV) RETROACTIVE DATE.—The 10 term ‘retroactive date’ means the date 11 that is the earlier of— 12 ‘‘(aa) the first day of the 13 current school year; and 14 ‘‘(bb) the date that is 90 15 days prior to the date of a 16 change in eligibility of a child. 17 ‘‘(ii) RETROACTIVITY.— 18 ‘‘(I) SUBMISSION OF MEAL 19 CLAIMS.—A local educational agency 20 shall— 21 ‘‘(aa) revise and resubmit a 22 previously submitted meal claim 23 to reflect a change in eligibility 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1907 IS described in subclause (i)(I)(aa) 1 of a child; and 2 ‘‘(bb) submit a meal claim 3 for any meal provided on or after 4 the retroactive date for a child 5 that has a change of eligibility 6 described in subclause (i)(I)(bb). 7 ‘‘(II) REIMBURSEMENT.—The 8 Secretary shall reimburse each meal 9 claim submitted by a local educational 10 agency under subclause (I).’’. 11 SEC. 4. REDUCING STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH UNPAID 12 SCHOOL MEAL FEES. 13 Section 9(b) of the Richard B. Russell National 14 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)) is amended by 15 striking paragraph (10) and inserting the following: 16 ‘‘(10) REDUCING STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH 17 UNPAID SCHOOL MEAL FEES.— 18 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 19 ‘‘(i) COVERED CHILD.—The term 20 ‘covered child’ means a child who— 21 ‘‘(I) is enrolled in a school that 22 participates in the school lunch pro- 23 gram under this Act or the school 24 breakfast program under section 4 of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1907 IS the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 1 U.S.C. 1773); and 2 ‘‘(II) is a member of a household 3 that owes unpaid school meal fees. 4 ‘‘(ii) UNPAID SCHOOL MEAL FEES.— 5 The term ‘unpaid school meal fees’ means 6 outstanding fees owed by a household to a 7 local educational agency for lunch provided 8 under this Act or breakfast provided under 9 section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 10 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773). 11 ‘‘(B) OVERT IDENTIFICATION PROHIB- 12 ITED.—A local educational agency or school 13 food authority may not, based on the status of 14 a covered child as a covered child— 15 ‘‘(i) physically segregate the covered 16 child; 17 ‘‘(ii) overtly identify the covered 18 child— 19 ‘‘(I) through the use of special 20 tokens or tickets; or 21 ‘‘(II) by an announcement or a 22 published list of names; or 23 ‘‘(iii) identify or stigmatize the cov- 24 ered child by any other means. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 1907 IS ‘‘(C) ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION BY 1 LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—For any cov- 2 ered child who is a member of a household that 3 has unpaid school meal fees for 1 consecutive 4 week of meals or more, a local educational 5 agency shall— 6 ‘‘(i) attempt to directly certify the 7 covered child for free meals under para- 8 graph (4) or (5); or 9 ‘‘(ii) in a case where the local edu- 10 cational agency is not able to directly cer- 11 tify the covered child under paragraph (4) 12 or (5), provide to the household of the cov- 13 ered child— 14 ‘‘(I) a household application for 15 free or reduced price lunch under this 16 Act and free breakfast under section 4 17 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 18 (42 U.S.C. 1773) and applicable de- 19 scriptive material; and 20 ‘‘(II) written and oral commu- 21 nication to encourage submission of 22 the application described in subclause 23 (I). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 1907 IS ‘‘(D) COLLECTION OF UNPAID SCHOOL 1 MEAL FEES.—In attempting to collect unpaid 2 school meal fees from a household, a local edu- 3 cational agency or school food authority may 4 not— 5 ‘‘(i) except as described in subpara- 6 graph (E), direct any communication re- 7 garding unpaid school meal fees to a cov- 8 ered child who is a member of the house- 9 hold; 10 ‘‘(ii) withhold educational opportuni- 11 ties from, or otherwise stigmatize, a cov- 12 ered child due to the status of the covered 13 child as a covered child; or 14 ‘‘(iii) use a debt collector (as defined 15 in section 803 of the Consumer Credit 16 Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1692a)). 17 ‘‘(E) LETTERS.— 18 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 19 (ii), a school food authority may request a 20 covered child to deliver a letter addressed 21 to a parent or guardian of the covered 22 child that contains a communication relat- 23 ing to unpaid school meal fees. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 1907 IS ‘‘(ii) CONDITION.—In carrying out 1 clause (i), a school food authority shall not 2 provide the letter to the covered child in a 3 manner that stigmatizes the covered child. 4 ‘‘(F) ELIMINATING STIGMA IN MEAL SERV- 5 ICE.—In providing a meal to a covered child, a 6 local educational agency or school food author- 7 ity may not, based on the status of the covered 8 child as a covered child, dispose of or take away 9 from the covered child any food that has al- 10 ready been served to the covered child.’’. 11 SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 12 It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Agri- 13 culture should ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, 14 that a school food authority that participates in the school 15 lunch program under the Richard B. Russell National 16 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the school 17 breakfast program under section 4 of the Child Nutrition 18 Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773) shall provide to a child who 19 requests a lunch or breakfast the same lunch or breakfast 20 provided to students not certified to receive free or re- 21 duced price school lunch or breakfast under those Acts, 22 regardless of the ability of the child to pay for the lunch 23 or breakfast requested. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Jun 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1907.IS S1907 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS