Federal School Nutrition Programs, Free and Reduced-Price Meals.
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) are child nutrition programs funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. The NSLP and the SBP are designed to promote the health and well-being of children by providing nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost meals to children each school day. The NSLP and the SBP are administered in Washington by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), and both programs provide reimbursements to school districts for served meals that meet federal requirements.
Household applications submitted by families to schools are used to determine student eligibility for free or reduced-price meals (FRPM). To qualify for free school meals, a student's family income must be at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Students whose families have an income between 130 percent and 185 percent of the FPL are eligible for reduced-price meals. Students whose families earn more than 185 percent of the FPL pay full price, but the meals are federally subsidized to some extent.
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act provides an alternative to household applications for FRPM by allowing schools with high numbers of low-income students to serve free meals to all students. A school, group of schools, or school district is eligible for the CEP if at least 40 percent of its students are identified as eligible for free meals through means other than household applications.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (P.L. 116-127), federal legislation adopted in 2020 and subsequently extended, allowed states, through a waiver issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Department of Agriculture), to provide meals at no charge to all students, regardless of family income, though the 2021-22 school year. Federal provisions authorizing states to provide meals at no charge to all students during the school year have expired.
Program of Basic Education.
The state's program of basic education is defined in statute as that which is necessary to provide students with the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to meet state-established high school graduation requirements. Those requirements are intended to allow students to have the opportunity to graduate with a meaningful diploma that prepares them for postsecondary education, gainful employment, and citizenship.
The minimum components of the instructional program of basic education include multiple education requirements, student transportation requirements, and statewide salary allocations necessary to hire and retain qualified staff for the state's statutory program of basic education.
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
In addition to its constitutional charge of supervising all matter pertaining to public schools, the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and its office have numerous and broad responsibilities prescribed in statute, including:
Learning Assistance Program.
The Learning Assistance Program (LAP) supports the provision of supplemental instruction and services for students who are not meeting academic standards, a term defined to mean students with the greatest academic deficits in basic skills as identified by statewide, school, or district assessments or other performance measurement tools.
The state provides two types of funding allocations for the LAP: a general LAP allocation and an additional high poverty-based allocation for qualifying schools. School districts and schools qualify for one or both allocations based on prior years' percentages of students who qualify for FRPM.
National Board Certification Bonuses.
Teachers and other certificated instructional staff (CIS) who have attained certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (National Board) are eligible for a state-funded bonus for each year they maintain the certification. A qualifying CIS who holds a valid certificate from the National Board for the duration of the 2022-2023 school year will receive a bonus of $6,019.
An additional state-funded annual bonus of $5,000 is paid to each qualifying CIS with a valid National Board certificate and an instructional assignment in a qualifying high poverty school. "High poverty schools" are designated in rule by the SPI and must meet threshold requirements for the percentage of students who are eligible for FRPM.
Providing All Public School Students with Access to Meals Served Without Charge.
Beginning with the 2023-24 school year, each public school, including charter schools and state-tribal compact schools, must provide breakfast and lunch each school day to any student who requests a breakfast, lunch, or both. The school must provide the meals at no charge to the student and without consideration of the student's eligibility for a federally reimbursed free or reduced-price meal (FRPM). The provided meals must be nutritiously adequate and qualify for reimbursement under the NSLP or the SBP, and students are not eligible for more than one meal in a meal service period.
Meals provided at no charge to requesting students are made part of the state's statutory program of basic education.
The OSPI must reimburse school districts that participate in the NSLP and SBP on a per-meal reimbursement basis for meals that are not already reimbursed at the Department of Agriculture free rate. The additional state reimbursement amount must be the difference between the Department of Agriculture's free rate and the Department of Agriculture's paid rate.
The SPI must adopt and periodically revise rules to implement requirements obligating public schools to provide meals at no charge to requesting students. Until the 2025-26 school year, the SPI may exempt public school districts from the requirements to provide meals at no charge to all requesting students if the district shows good cause for not being able to comply with the requirements.
Public schools must continue collecting meal applications where applicable and run direct certification at least monthly. Additionally, school districts must annually monitor data for eligibility in the CEP and apply where eligible.
Related Provisions and Amendments.
Numerous changes are made to align statutory provisions with requirements obligating schools to provide meals at no charge to requesting students. Examples include:
Funding Related Provisions.
Learning Assistance Program. Funding provisions for the LAP are modified as follows for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years:
National Board Certified Teacher Bonuses. For the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, a qualifying CIS is eligible for the high poverty schools annual bonus of $5,000 if they are in an instructional assignment in a school that met the definition of high poverty school during the 2022-23 school year.
Funding Impacts Work Group.
The SPI, by September 1, 2023, must convene a work group to identify and examine actual and potential impacts to education programs funded by the state, including the LAP, resulting from requirements obligating schools to provide meals at no charge to requesting students. The work group must also recommend actions for avoiding or mitigating identified impacts. Staff support for the work group must be provided by the OSPI.
The work group must, at a minimum, include representatives of school districts and persons with relevant expertise in state-funded education programs. The work group must meet at least monthly and provide a report of findings and recommendations to the appropriate committees of the Legislature by June 30, 2024.