An Act To Prevent Food Shaming in Maine's Public Schools
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 0167
Committee Amendment CA_A_H91 (House)

COMMITTEE AMENDMENT «A " to H.P. 130, L.D. 167, Bill, "An Act To 
Prevent Food Shaming in Maine's Public Schools" 
Amend the bill by inserting after the title and before the enacting clause the 
following: 
'Mandate preamble. This measure requires one or more local units of government 
to expand or modify activities so as to necessitate additional expenditures from local 
revenues but does not provide funding for at least 90% of those expenditures. Pursuant to 
the Constitution of Maine, Article IX, Section 21, 2/3 of all of the members elected to 
each House have determined it necessary to enact this measure.' 
Amend the bill in section 1 in subchapter 11 in §6681 in subsection 1 by striking out 
all of the last 2 sentences (page 1, lines 13 to 19 in L.D.) 
Amend the bill in section 1 in subchapter 11 in §6681 by striking out all of 
subsections 3 and 4 (page 1, lines 27 to 34 in L.D.) and inserting the following: 
'3. Stigmatization. A public school may not openly identify or otherwise stigmatize 
a student who cannot pay for a meal or who has payments due for previous meals. 
4. Required communications. A public school's communications about a student's 
meal debts must be made to the parent or guardian of the student rather than to the 
student directly except that, if a student inquires about that student's meal debt, the school 
may answer the student's inquiry. A public school may ask a student to carry to the 
student's parent or guardian a letter regarding the student's meal debt. 
5. Debt collection; best practices. The department shall develop guidance for 
school administrative units relating to the collection of student meal debt, including, but 
not limited to, best practices and information on how to create an online system for the 
payment of student meal debt. The department shall post the infmmation under this 
subsection on its publicly accessible website.' 
Amend the bill by relettering or renumbering any nonconsecutive Part letter or 
section number to read consecutively. 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT "A "to H.P. 130, L.D. 167 
SUMMARY 
This amendment does the following .. 
1. It strikes the requirement that a school take certain actions to assist the parent or 
guardian of a student who requests a meal. 
2. It retains the prohibition that a public school may not openly identify or stigmatize 
a student who cannot pay for a meal or who has payments due for previous meals but 
strikes specific examples of ways students could be stigmatized. 
3. It provides that a public school's communication about a student's meal must be 
made to the parent or guardian of the student rather than to the student directly except 
that, if the student inquires about the student's meal debt, the school may answer the 
student's inquiry. 
4. 
It requires the Department of Education to develop guidance for school 
administrative units relating to the collection of student meal debt, including, but not 
limited to, best practices and information on how to create an online system for the 
payment of student meal debt. The amendment requires the department to post this 
information on its publicly accessible website. 
5. It adds a mandate preamble. 
FISCAL NOTE REQUIRED 
(See attached) 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
Approved: 03/07/19 feac.. 
LD 167 
LR675(02) 
An Act To Prevent Food Shaming in Maine's Public Schools 
Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment •A( H-Cf ,) 
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs 
State Mandates 
Required Activity 
Fiscal Note ·Required: Yes 
Fiscal Note 
Potential State Mandate - Unfunded 
Requires public schools that provide meals to students under the National School 
Lunch Program or under a program administered by the United States Department of 
Agriculture to provide such a meal to a student who requests the meal regardless of 
the student's inability to pay or failure to pay for school meals in the past. 
Unit Affected 
School 
Local Cost 
Significant 
statewide 
The required local activities in this bill may represent a state mandate pursuant to the Constitution of Maine. If the bill 
does require a local unit of government to expand or modify its activities so as to necessitate additional expenditures 
from local revenue, the state mandate provisions of the Constitution of Maine require either: (1) General Fund 
appropriations be provided to fund at least 90% of any additional necessitated local costs of the mandate; or (2) a 
Mandate Preamble be added to the bill and two-thirds of the members of each House vote to exempt the mandate from 
the funding requirement. If the bill does represent a state ipandate and neither one of these actions occurs, the local 
units of government will not be required to implement the mandated activities. 
Fiscal Detail and Notes 
Additional costs to the Depa1iment of Education to develop the required guidance for school administrative districts 
related to the collection of student meal debt can be absorbed within existing budgeted resources. 
LR0675(02) - Fiscal Note - Page 1 of 1