What is this new law?

The 2020 Washington state legislature passed House Bill 1660. The goal of the new law is that every student can participate in extracurricular activities and that cost should not be a barrier to inclusion.

 In addition to data collection requirements, the existing law was updated to reduce barriers for students. School districts who charge a fee for attendance at, or participation in any optional, noncredit extracurricular events must adopt a policy for waiving fees for students in grades 9 - 12 who are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals.

 Furthermore, these fee removals should be streamlined and identical to the process for charging and collecting fees from other students in grades 9-12.

 How does this impact Child Nutrition and what must be done to implement this legislation?

 1.     Help facilitate streamlined fee removals for students eligible for free or reduced­ price meals.

Free or reduced-price meal eligibility must be kept confidential. Therefore, parental consent must be obtained and kept on file for eligibility information to be shared.

Reminder - Parental consent is also required for students eligible via the College Bound Scholarship program as College Bound eligibility is based on eligibility for free or reduced-price meals.

To streamline fee removals, it's important to include these extracurricular activities on the Consent to Share Eligibility Form that is sent to parents.

 2.    Work to get Consent to Share forms returned.

Without parental consent, districts cannot share eligibility information with other local programs and cannot automatically remove fees. You must gather and process Consent to Share forms. These should be gathered from students who are eligible via a meal application, Family Income Survey, or students directly certified for free or reduced-price meals.

3.     Who is eligible for these benefits if our school or district offers CEP/Provision 2 and all students eat at no cost?

 Any student that has been Directly Certified for free or reduced-price school meals or has a Family Income Survey on file that meets the income guidelines of the Free/Reduced-Price Meal Application are considered eligible for these fee removals.

TO SHARE PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION FOR OTHER SCHOOL PROGRAMS 2023-2024 School Year

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