No. SB 1098
Filed under Agriculture.
Universal Free School Breakfast and Lunch Program; Requiring the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, subject to the appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and operate a program to provide universal free school breakfast and lunch meals to all public school students; deleting provisions requiring school districts to implement and charge students for a breakfast program; authorizing school districts to operate free school meal programs using offsite food preparation locations, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFlorida school districts must now provide free breakfast and lunch to every student in every school serving any of grades K-12, replacing the old rule that only required a for-purchase breakfast in schools serving kindergarten through fifth grade.
The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services must also run its own statewide breakfast and lunch program, but only if the Legislature appropriates the money. Districts no longer have to set breakfast prices high enough to cover their own costs.
Universal free breakfast used to be required only in schools where 80 percent or more of students qualified for free or reduced meals, and boards could opt out after public hearings. That threshold and opt-out are both gone.
Districts must pursue every available federal reimbursement, including the community eligibility provision, to help cover the cost of feeding every student. They must also tell parents every year, through school announcements, that free meals are available.
AISubject to legislative appropriation, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services must establish and operate its own universal free breakfast and lunch program covering every public school student in kindergarten through twelfth grade.
AIEach district school board must implement a free breakfast and lunch program in every school serving any combination of grades K-12, replacing the old rule limited to breakfast in schools serving kindergarten through fifth grade.
AIDistricts no longer have to annually set breakfast prices high enough, combined with reimbursements and state funds, to cover the program's cost without dipping into the district's own operating budget.
AIUniversal free breakfast used to be mandatory only in schools where 80% or more of students qualified for free or reduced meals, and boards could vote to skip it after public hearings. Both are now gone.
AIIn implementing the universal program, each district must participate in the community eligibility provision or another special assistance alternative when eligible, to capture the most available federal reimbursement for meal costs.