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Repeals the federal reduced-price school breakfast and lunch programs and removes statutory references to reduced-price meals. At the same time, it expands automatic free-meal eligibility (including direct certification through Medicaid), raises the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) multiplier to 2.5, and requires school districts to retroactively revise meal reimbursement claims for newly certified children. The changes apply to school years beginning on or after July 1, 2025.
The bill expands and automates free-meal eligibility for many low-income students and simplifies some administration, but it eliminates reduced-price benefits and shifts costs and administrative burdens onto some families, schools, and government budgets, creating trade-offs between increased access and new financial and operational strains.
Students in households up to 224% of the federal poverty level and children enrolled in Medicaid/SSI/adoption/kinship/state supplementary benefits are directly certified for free school meals, increasing access to breakfast and lunch and reducing paperwork for families.
Raising the CEP multiplier to 2.5 and providing retroactive reimbursement helps schools recover meal costs and enables more districts to offer universal free meals without individual applications.
Eliminating the reduced-price eligibility category simplifies administration for the USDA and school districts by removing an eligibility tier and related paperwork.
Students who previously qualified for reduced-price meals would lose subsidized breakfasts and lunches, increasing food insecurity and hunger during the school day.
Families that had paid reduced prices would face higher out-of-pocket meal costs, increasing household expenses for low- and moderate-income households.
School districts that relied on reduced-price reimbursements may lose partial federal revenue, straining budgets and potentially forcing cuts to other school services.
Introduced April 7, 2025 by Josh S. Gottheimer · Last progress April 7, 2025