Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Thursday, October 3, 2019
Hawaii is one of three states that allows schools to deny students access to school lunches due to unpaid meal debt
By News Release @ 3:41 AM :: 3291 Views :: Education K-12

11 states have laws that support student access to school meals

by Deborah Temkin, Sarah Sun, Alexis Lessans, ChildTrends.org September 25, 2019

Many schools struggle to determine what actions to take when students cannot pay for school meals. In a previous blog, we highlighted how some schools’ efforts to deny students meals or to publicly shame them (i.e., “lunch shaming”) run counter to broader initiatives to support students’ physical, social, and emotional well-being.

As of September 2019, a total of 29 states have either passed, or considered passage of, new laws to address how schools handle students with unpaid meal debt. Fifteen states have laws that address student access to school meals; 11 of these states have laws that explicitly support student access. For example, Maine requires schools to provide meals for all students regardless of their ability to pay and restricts schools from throwing away meals, requiring chores, or otherwise stigmatizing students with unpaid meal debt.

Of the remaining four states, one, Louisiana, has enacted legislation that does not directly take action on unpaid meals, but instead establishes a committee to create guidelines for ensuring student access to meals.

Three states (Hawaii, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) have laws that allow schools to restrict students’ access to meals under certain parameters; in Hawaii’s case, schools are prohibited from doing so for the first 21 days of school and until seven days after a second attempt at notifying parents of the debt, but are permitted to restrict meals beyond these parameters. Pennsylvania, while first restricting the use of lunch shaming practices, later enacted legislation that reinstated the option for schools to provide alternative meals to students owing more than $50.

A similar bill is pending in Washington to revise the current law—which is similar to Maine’s—to allow schools to deny meals to students in grades 9-12.

The table below shows how states have addressed school lunch shaming in enacted, pending, and previously considered legislation, updating our map from this 2018 blog. As school meal debt remains a topic of concern for policymakers and educators, as well as students and parents, we’ll continue to track movement in this area.

To collect these data, we included state laws coded as part of the National Association of State Boards of Education’s State Policy Database as of September 2017 and compared them with state legislation introduced since then according to the PoliticoPro State Legislative Compass. We considered bills introduced last year as still pending in states that allow bills to be carried over between legislative sessions. 

read … Full Report

NASBE: Hawaii - Unpaid meal charge policy

KHON: Report shows Hawaii is one of three states that allows schools to deny students access to school lunches due to unpaid meal debt  

CB: Why Hawaii Kids Can Still Be Denied School Lunches

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT