Pupil nutrition: free or reduced-price meals: adequate time to eat.

(1) Existing law requires each school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide one nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal for each needy pupil during each schoolday, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a school district or county office of education to use funds made available through any applicable federal or state program or to use its own funds to provide the required meals. This bill would express legislative intent that schools provide pupils with adequate time to eat lunch during the schoolday. The bill would require school districts and county offices of education, in addition to providing a nutritionally adequate free or reduced-price meal for each needy pupil each schoolday, to ensure that each of the schools in their respective jurisdictions provides their pupils adequate time to eat after being served. The bill would declare that the State Department of Education specifies that an adequate time to eat is 20 minutes after being served lunch. The bill would require a school that determines it is not providing adequate time to eat to take specified actions. To the extent this requirement would create new duties for school districts and county offices of education, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. The bill would specify that, in order to comply with its requirements requiring adequate time for pupils to eat after being served, a school district or county office of education may, to the extent that funds are available, use federally or state-regulated nonprofit school food service cafeteria accounts to defray any allowable costs from that funding source before considering other funding streams. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to this provision. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.