Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Legislation being considered by Congress under President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda would expand the number of schools eligible to offer universal free meals and increase reimbursements. “As school districts and education returns to normal, we think it’s critical to keep children out of the middle of meal debt discussions and maximize the federal nutrition dollars available to states to feed every child,” said Pat Baker, senior policy analyst at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. Advocates hope this year it will become law. The compromise bill was intended to make schools think about their policies, and make parents aware of them.Īfter COVID-19 hit, a bill prohibiting “meal-shaming” failed to pass last session. An attempt by advocates to prohibit student restrictions over debt was filed late in the session and never passed, after school business administrators raised concerns about parents who can afford to pay for meals but choose not to. That report drew attention to the problem, and in 2019 the Legislature required districts to create and publicize their plans for handling meal debt. Students were prohibited from participating in sports, field trips, or graduation due to meal debt. In extreme cases, cafeteria workers were instructed to throw away a hot meal and exchange it for a cold cheese sandwich, publicly stigmatizing children. The bill’s genesis is a report the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute did in 2018, which chronicled the disparate practices districts have for addressing meal debt. Schools could not give a student a meal that is different from what is offered to others, restrict the student’s activities, or publicly identify a student whose family owes money. If a family owes money, the school would have to determine if the student qualifies for free or reduced price lunch, so eligible students can enroll.

In districts that charge for meals, the bill would ensure students get food without being embarrassed for debt. School districts could get a waiver from applying if it would cause financial hardship. This ensures that more students can easily get school meals while reducing schools’ administrative burdens. The federal government reimburses the school based on the number of low-income students it has. Andy Vargas, a Haverhill Democrat, would require all school districts where at least half of students are low-income to enroll in a federal program that lets them offer all students free breakfast and lunch without collecting applications from each household. The legislation, sponsored by Creem and Rep.

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