| Nutrition Services Division Management Bulletin |
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| Purpose: Policy, Action Required, Beneficial Information | |
| To: Public School Districts and County Offices of Education |
Number: NSD-SNP-19-2012 |
| Attention: Superintendents, Principals, and Food Service Director |
Date: November 2012 |
| Subject: Statutory Change to the State Meal Mandate Waiver Request Deadline |
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| Reference: Assembly Bill 2555 (Carter, Statutes of 2012), California Education Code sections 33050, 49548, and 49550 | |
This Management Bulletin (MB) alerts school districts and county superintendents of schools of an impending change to California Education Code (EC) Section 49548, which provides a mechanism to request a waiver to EC Section 49550, known as the State Meal Mandate, during summer school. Only local educational agencies (LEA) that plan to submit waiver requests of the State Meal Mandate need to take action.
Existing Law
EC Section 49548 allows districts and county superintendents of schools to submit meal waiver requests no later than 30 days prior to the last State Board of Education (SBE) meeting that occurs prior to the commencement of a district or county office of education’s summer school session.
New Law
Assembly Bill (AB) 2555, chaptered on September 19, 2012, amends EC Section 49548 to require that LEAs submit their waiver requests no later than 60 days prior to the last SBE meeting that occurs prior to the commencement of a district or county office of education’s summer school session. AB 2555 as chaptered may be read on the California Legislative Information Web page at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_2551-2600/ab_2555_bill_20120919_chaptered.html.
Implementation
Beginning January 1, 2013, all waiver requests of the State Meal Mandate under EC Section 49548 will be due no later than 60 days prior to the last regular meeting of the SBE before the commencement of the summer school session for which the waiver is sought. Interested LEAs must submit requests to the California Department of Education’s (CDE) Waiver Office by the respective due date.
Please note that the CDE is implementing a new online waiver request process and the CDE will no longer accept hard copy/paper waiver requests. For more information on the waiver process, visit the CDE Waivers Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/lr/wr/.
If you have any questions about this MB, please contact Donna Reedy, School Nutrition Programs Analyst, by phone at 916-327-5866 or 800-952-5609, or by e-mail at dreedy@cde.ca.gov.
