Sponsors (46)
Eliminates reduced-price meal reimbursements and expands free school meal eligibility (income threshold to 224% FPL) plus Medicaid-based direct certification.
Official title: To amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to eliminate reduced price breakfasts and lunches and to require that the income guidelines for determining eligibility for free breakfasts and free lunches be 224 percent of the poverty level, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 7, 2025 by Josh S. Gottheimer · Last progress April 7, 2025
The bill expands free school meal access and simplifies certain program rules to improve child nutrition and reduce paperwork, but it removes the reduced-price category — potentially raising meal costs for some families — while increasing federal spending and imposing administrative burdens on schools and state agencies.
Students from households up to 224% of the federal poverty level will become eligible for free school meals, expanding access and likely improving nutrition for a large number of low- and middle-income children.
Children already enrolled in Medicaid, SSI, or certain adoption/kinship assistance will be automatically certified for free meals, reducing paperwork, stigma, and barriers to participation.
Raising the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) multiplier (to 2.5) will make more schools eligible for universal free meals, increasing school-level coverage of free meals.
Students who previously qualified only for reduced-price meals may face higher out-of-pocket costs or lose affordable meal access if no alternative subsidy is provided, potentially harming family budgets and child nutrition.
Removing the reduced-price category risks lower school meal participation among families no longer qualifying for free meals, which could worsen nutrition and food security for affected children.
Expanding free-meal eligibility and direct certification increases federal reimbursements and program costs, which will raise federal spending and could affect taxpayers and state budget allocations.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Eliminates the federal reduced-price school breakfast and lunch reimbursement authority and simultaneously expands who qualifies for free school meals. It raises the income threshold for free meals, authorizes direct certification for children eligible through certain Medicaid-related statuses (including SSI and some adoption/guardianship assistance), requires schools to retroactively adjust prior meal claims when a student is newly approved for free meals, and sets the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) multiplier to 2.5 starting with school years on/after July 1, 2025. The net effect shifts some students from a reduced-price tier into free-meal eligibility while removing the statutory option to reimburse for reduced-price meals. It creates new administrative duties for State education agencies and local school food authorities and changes funding/claiming rules for prior months in a school year.