Senator Tina Smith and Representative Ilhan Omar Reintroduce No Shame at School Act
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) and U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) reintroduced their No Shame at School Act, a bill aimed at ending lunch shaming practices in schools nationwide.
The No Shame at School Act would prohibit school districts from publicly identifying and shaming students who are unable to pay for school meals and hiring debt collectors to recover unpaid school meal debt. This bill would also require schools to attempt to directly certify children with unpaid meal debt for free or reduced-price meals and allows schools to be retroactively reimbursed for meals served to these children.
“No child should fear being shamed over an unpaid lunch bill,” said Rep. Omar, a member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce. “In Minnesota, our state has implemented universal school meals and effectively canceled future school meal debt. I’m proud to partner with Senator Tina Smith to end arcane and inhumane school lunch shaming nationwide.”
“At a moment when the Trump administration pushed through the largest cut to food assistance for hungry children in history, we need to be making sure kids who can’t afford school lunch aren’t shamed and stigmatized,” said Senator Smith. “I’m so proud of the work Minnesota has done to address this issue through universal school lunches, but there are too many places around the country where we still see children humiliated at school for an unpaid lunch bill. Everyone knows you can’t learn or perform well when you are hungry, and making sure kids get the school lunches they need without being made to feel ashamed or embarrassed is an important part of setting them up for success.”
At a time when the Trump Administration is actively hiding hunger statistics and gutting nutrition assistance, it is more important than ever to bring the issue of child hunger to the forefront. By addressing the issue of school meal debt, the No Shame at School Act aims to alleviate that financial pressure on families while ensuring that all students have equal access to nutritious meals during the school day.
Current co-sponsors in the House include Nanette Barragan, Sanford Bishop, Julia Brownley, Andre Carson, Troy Carter, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Yvette D. Clarke, J. Lou Correa, Danny K. Davis, Mark DeSaulnier, Adriano Espaillat, Dwight Evans, Robert Garcia, Jonathan Jackson, Pramila Jayapal, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Robin Kelly, Ro Khanna, Summer Lee, James McGovern, Gwen Moore, Kevin Mullin, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Scott Peters, Stacey Plaskett, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Delia Ramirez, Andrea Salinas, Jan Schakowsky, Lateefah Simon, Adam Smith, Melanie Stansbury, Mark Takano, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Nydia Velazquez, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Frederica Wilson.
You can find the full text of the bill here.
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