Senate committee advances bill to require county surveys of student access to food outside school

The Senate committee voted to report Senate Bill 102 to the full Senate after counsel told members the measure would convert several permissive county board authorities into requirements and tighten reporting about student access to food during non‑school days.

Counsel told the committee the bill would require every county school system to conduct an annual countywide survey of public‑school students to determine “their non school weeding patterns and the availability of nutritious food when schools are closed,” and would require county boards to collect and distribute information about available food resources during non‑school days. Counsel also said the bill removes language that allowed individual public schools to include certain feeding assessments in crisis‑response plans and that the measure tracks prior legislation; “the section title of SB 155 was changed to summer feeding for all act,” counsel said.

The Vice Chair moved that the committee report the bill to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass and, under the bill’s double committee referral, first be referred to the Committee on Finance. The motion carried on a voice vote with no recorded opposition.

Why it matters: advocates and school officials have focused in recent years on food insecurity that affects students outside the classroom; making the survey and resource‑mapping duties mandatory would create an ongoing statewide data feed for the State Board and local districts, potentially shaping program and funding decisions.

The committee set no further public hearing on SB 102 during the session and sent the bill forward to the full Senate and the finance committee for consideration.