A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO PROVIDE FREE LUNCH TO ANY STUDENT ELIGIBLE FOR REDUCED‑PRICE LUNCH AND TO ENACT AN ANTI‑STIGMATIZATION AND ANTI‑DISCRIMINATION POLICY IN SCHOOL NUTRITION.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of five million dollars ($5,000,000) in recurring funds for the 2017‑2018 fiscal year to provide that any student eligible for reduced‑price lunch, including students in cooperative innovative high schools, regional schools, charter schools, and lab schools, receive lunch at no cost. These funds shall be allocated to each local school administrative unit based on the submission of a monthly claim for reimbursement that includes the number of reduced‑price meals served to students.
SECTION 2.  Part 2 of Article 17 of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 115C‑264.5.  Anti‑stigmatization and anti‑discrimination practices.
(a)	In the operation of their public school nutrition programs, the public schools shall not engage in any of the following activities:
(1)	Public identification or stigmatization of a student who cannot pay for a meal or who owes a meal debt by, for example, requiring that the student wear a wristband or hand stamp.
(2)	Requiring a student who cannot pay for a meal or who owes a meal debt to do chores or other work to pay for meals, unless chores or other work are required of all students regardless of meal debt.
(b)	A school shall direct communications about a student's meal debt to a parent or guardian and not the student. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a school from sending a student home with a letter addressed to a parent or guardian."
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2017, and applies beginning with the 2017‑2018 school year.