Code Section

49557.5.  

(a) For purposes of this section, “local educational agency” means a school, school district, county office of education, or charter school.

(b) (1) A local educational agency shall ensure that a pupil is not denied an available reimbursable meal of the pupil’s choice and is not shamed or treated differently from other pupils due to the pupil’s eligibility for free or reduced-price meals. This paragraph does not prohibit a school from serving an alternative reimbursable meal to a pupil who may need one for dietary or religious reasons, or as a regular menu item.

(2) If a local educational agency is required to provide to the department or to the United States Department of Agriculture a copy of the meal charge policy required pursuant to memorandum SP 46-2016 issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, the local educational agency or governing board or body of the local educational agency, as applicable, shall make that policy public.

(c) School personnel and volunteers at a local educational agency that serves nutritionally adequate meals to pupils during the instructional day shall not allow any disciplinary action that is taken against a pupil to result in the denial or delay of a nutritionally adequate breakfast or a nutritionally adequate lunch, as defined in Section 49553, to that pupil.

(d) A local educational agency shall not take any action directed at a pupil to collect school meal fees.

(e) This section shall only apply to a local educational agency that provides school meals through the federal National School Lunch Program or the federal School Breakfast Program.