I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3366 

To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to prohibit 

the stigmatization of children who are unable to pay for school meals, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 19, 2019 

Ms. OMAR (for herself, Ms. HAALAND, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. KILMER, Ms. NORTON, Ms. JACKSON LEE, 

Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. POCAN, Ms. WILD, Mr. 

SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. HASTINGS, 

Mr. COHEN, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. 

LUJA ́N, and Ms. JOHNSON of Texas) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 

Act to prohibit the stigmatization of children who are 

unable to pay for school meals, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No Shame at School 

5 Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. MANDATORY CERTIFICATION. 

2 Section 9(b)(5) of the Richard B. Russell National 

3 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(5)) is amended 

4 by— 

5 (1) striking ‘‘Discretionary’’ and inserting 

6 ‘‘Mandatory’’; and 

7 (2) striking ‘‘may’’ and inserting ‘‘shall’’. 

8 SEC. 3. RETROACTIVE REIMBURSEMENT. 

9 Section 9(b)(9)(C) of the Richard B. Russell National 

10 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(9)(C)) is amend11 ed— 

12 (1) by striking ‘‘Except’’ and inserting the fol13 lowing: 

14 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Except’’; 

15 (2) by redesignating clauses (i) and (ii) as sub16 clauses (I) and (II); and 

17 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

18 ‘‘(ii) RETROACTIVITY.—A local edu19 cational agency shall revise a previously 

20 submitted meal claim to reflect the eligi21 bility approval of a child for free or re22 duced price meals for the period that be23 gins on the earlier of the following: 

24 ‘‘(I) The first day of the current 

25 school year. 


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1 ‘‘(II) The date that is 90 days 

2 prior to the date of such eligibility ap3 proval. 

4 ‘‘(iii) MEAL CLAIM DEFINED.—In this 

5 subsection, the term ‘meal claim’ means 

6 any documentation provided by a school 

7 food authority to a State agency in order 

8 to receive reimbursement for the cost of a 

9 meal served to a child by such school food 

10 authority.’’. 

11 SEC. 4. REDUCING STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH UNPAID 

12 SCHOOL MEAL FEES. 

13 Section 9(b)(10) of the Richard B. Russell National 

14 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)(10)) is amended to 

15 read as follows: 

16 ‘‘(10) REDUCING STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH

17 UNPAID SCHOOL MEAL FEES.— 

18 ‘‘(A) OVERT IDENTIFICATION PROHIB19 ITED.—A local educational agency or school 

20 food authority may not, based on the status of 

21 a covered child as a covered child— 

22 ‘‘(i) physically segregate such covered 

23 child; 

24 ‘‘(ii) overtly identify such covered 

25 child— 


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1 ‘‘(I) through the use of special 

2 tokens or tickets; or 

3 ‘‘(II) by an announcement or a 

4 published list of names; or 

5 ‘‘(iii) identify or stigmatize such cov6 ered child by any other means. 

7 ‘‘(B) ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION BY

8 LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—For any cov9 ered child who is a member of a household that 

10 owes a week or more of unpaid school meal 

11 fees, a local educational agency shall— 

12 ‘‘(i) attempt to directly certify such 

13 covered child for free meals under para14 graph (4) or (5); or 

15 ‘‘(ii) in a case where the local edu16 cational agency is not able to directly cer17 tify such covered child under paragraph 

18 (4) or (5), provide to the household of such 

19 covered child— 

20 ‘‘(I) a household application and 

21 applicable descriptive material; and 

22 ‘‘(II) written and oral commu23 nications to encourage submission of 

24 the application. 


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1 ‘‘(C) COLLECTION OF UNPAID SCHOOL

2 MEAL FEES.—In attempting to collect unpaid 

3 school meal fees from a household, a local edu4 cational agency or school food authority may 

5 not— 

6 ‘‘(i) except as described in subpara7 graph (D), direct any communication re8 garding unpaid school meal fees to a cov9 ered child who is a member of such house10 hold; 

11 ‘‘(ii) withhold educational opportuni12 ties from, or otherwise stigmatize, a cov13 ered child due to the status of the covered 

14 child as a covered child; or 

15 ‘‘(iii) use a debt collector (as such 

16 term is defined in section 803 of the Con17 sumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 

18 1692a)). 

19 ‘‘(D) LETTERS.—A school food authority 

20 may permit a requirement that a covered child 

21 deliver a letter addressed to a parent or guard22 ian of the covered child that contains a commu23 nication relating to unpaid school meal fees, 

24 subject to the condition that the letter shall not 


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1 be distributed to the covered child in a manner 

2 that stigmatizes the covered child. 

3 ‘‘(E) ELIMINATING STIGMA IN MEAL SERV4 ICE.—In providing a meal to a covered child, a 

5 local educational agency or school food author6 ity may not, based on the status of the covered 

7 child as a covered child, dispose of or take away 

8 from the covered child any food that has al9 ready been served to such covered child. 

10 ‘‘(F) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 

11 ‘‘(i) COVERED CHILD.—The term 

12 ‘covered child’ means a child who— 

13 ‘‘(I) is enrolled in a school that 

14 participates in the school lunch pro15 gram under this Act or the school 

16 breakfast program under section 4 of 

17 the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 

18 U.S.C. 1773); and 

19 ‘‘(II) is a member of a household 

20 that owes unpaid school meal fees. 

21 ‘‘(ii) UNPAID SCHOOL MEAL FEES.— 

22 The term ‘unpaid school meal fees’ means 

23 outstanding fees owed by a household to a 

24 local educational agency for lunches under 

25 this Act or breakfasts under section 4 of 


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1 the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 

2 U.S.C. 1773).’’. 

3 SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

4 It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Agri5 culture should ensure that to the maximum extent prac6 ticable, a school food authority that participates in the 

7 school lunch program under the Richard B. Russell Na8 tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the 

9 school breakfast program under section 4 of the Child Nu10 trition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773), shall provide to a 

11 child who requests a lunch or breakfast the same reim12 bursable lunch or breakfast provided to all students not 

13 certified to receive free school lunch or breakfast, regard14 less of ability to pay for the lunch or breakfast. 

Æ 


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