STAND. COM. REP. NO. 902

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 423

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 423 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STUDENT MEALS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to prohibit schools from denying a student a meal solely for failure to pay.

 

     More specifically, this measure prohibits denying a meal solely for failure to pay:

 

(1)  Within the first thirty days of the first semester of a school year while the student's application for free or reduced lunch is being processed; or

 

(2)  Within one week after a student's meal fund account reaches a zero or negative balance.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, Hawaii Children's Action Network, and seventeen individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that forty-seven percent of public school students in Hawaii qualify for the Department of Education's free and reduced lunch program.  Your Committee notes that gaps in coverage for students in the program can arise due to delays in processing applications or the financial situation of the student's family.  Your Committee recognizes that chronically hungry students suffer significant hardships that can result in achievement gaps, loss of concentration, illness, increased absenteeism, behavioral problems, depression, and misdiagnosed learning disorders.  Your Committee believes that this measure will ensure that students are not denied a meal solely for failure to pay due to delays in processing applications for free or reduced lunch or for temporarily low or negative meal fund account balances.  This issue has been brought before the Legislature previously, and given the inconsistency in school-level policies as to how parents are informed of meal fund account balances and the point at which students are denied meals, your Committee believes statutory action is required.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Requiring the Department of Education to submit a report to the Legislature on the issue of students being denied a meal solely for failure to pay, which is to include:

 

(A)  The number of meals that have been denied because of a zero or negative balance in a student's meal fund account;

 

(B)  The number of students that have been denied a meal because of a zero or negative balance;

 

(C)  The reasons for the zero or negative balance and subsequent meal denial;

 

(D)  Steps the department is taking to make the process of paying for meals easier;

 

(E)  Procedures for notifying parents of low or negative balances, including when and how they are notified; and

 

(F)  The standard operating procedure for low or negative balance notification and subsequent meal denial; and

 

(2)  Making technical nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of style and clarity.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 423, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 423, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair