Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

H.B. 776
                          GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
                                                                                            Apr 18, 2023
                                      SESSION 2023                                    HOUSE PRINCIPAL CLERK
     H                                                                                               D
                                   HOUSE BILL DRH10286-NHa-77
     Short Title:   Free Lunch for Some Students/Stop Lunch Shame.                              (Public)
     Sponsors:      Representative Brockman.
     Referred to:
                                     A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO PROVIDE FREE LUNCH TO STUDENTS
     ELIGIBLE         FOR     REDUCED-PRICE            LUNCH       AND       TO      ENACT      AN
     ANTISTIGMATIZATION AND ANTIDISCRIMINATION POLICY IN SCHOOL
     NUTRITION.
 The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
             SECTION 1.(a) There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of
 Public Instruction the sum of five million dollars ($5,000,000) in recurring funds for the
 2023-2024 fiscal year to provide that any student eligible for reduced-price lunch in a public
 school unit receive lunch at no cost. These funds shall be allocated to each public school unit
 based on the submission of a monthly claim for reimbursement that includes the number of
 reduced-price meals served to students.
             SECTION 1.(b) If the funds appropriated pursuant to subsection (a) of this section
 are insufficient to achieve the purpose described in that subsection, the State Board of Education
 may authorize funds appropriated to State Aid for Public Schools for that purpose.
             SECTION 1.(c) The Department of Public Instruction shall include information
 regarding the cost of implementing the requirements of this section in any request submitted to
 the General Assembly for budget adjustments related to enrollment growth.
             SECTION 2. Part 2 of Article 17 of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is amended
 by adding a new section to read:
 "§ 115C-264.5. Antistigmatization and antidiscrimination practices.
     (a)     In the operation of their school nutrition programs, schools shall not engage in public
 identification or stigmatization of a student who cannot pay for a meal or who owes a meal debt
 by, for example, requiring that the student wear a wristband or hand stamp.
     (b)     A school shall direct communications about a student's meal debt to a parent or
 guardian and not the student. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a school from sending a
 student home with a letter addressed to a parent or guardian."
             SECTION 3. This act becomes effective July 1, 2023, and applies beginning with
 the 2023-2024 school year.
                                  *DRH10286-NHa-77*