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Lawmakers hear bill to bar denying school meals for unpaid accounts and curb student shaming
Summary
Representative Hope Damon presented House Bill 703 to prohibit school districts from denying meals to students with unpaid balances, ban visible shaming methods and disallow punitive use of collections or activity bans. Sponsors and witnesses said the measure would protect students, reduce stigma and reduce local meal-debt burdens; the School
CONCORD, N.H. Representative Hope Damon opened testimony on House Bill 703, a bill that would prohibit school districts from denying meals to students with unpaid meal balances, ban identification or alternative meals that single out children and forbid using collections agencies or "work off" programs to collect meal debt.
Damon framed the bill as a child-protection measure: "We should not be penalizing children who through no fault of their own are poor and consequently food insecure," she told the committee. The bill's provisions would bar schools from serving an alternative or reduced meal, using badges/tokens or otherwise publicly identifying students with unpaid balances, and from preventing…
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