Advocating for free school meals for all K-12 kids

As of this year, a total of nine states have enacted permanent policies to provide universal free school meals to all K-12 students, regardless of their family’s income. 

These states - Colorado, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Vermont - have dedicated state funding to continue providing free breakfast and lunch following the expiration of the federal pandemic waivers.

Other states have expanded access to free school meals through different methods.

Several states, including Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington, have passed laws to permanently cover the cost of meals for students who would otherwise qualify for “reduced-price” status.

The state of Washington also mandates free meals for K-4 students in schools where at least 30 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

In every state, high-poverty schools can provide free meals to all students through the federal USDA Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) without requiring individual applications. 

Nationwide, the National School Lunch Program continues to provide free or low-cost meals to eligible low-income students in nearly 100,000 schools. 

Which brings us to the Kansas State Legislature currently reviewing the state’s free and reduced lunch program for the 2025-26/2026-27 school years.

A proposed Senate bill, SB 387, would require school districts to verify the income of every student’s family applying for free meals.

A recent audit reportedly indicated that 2023-24 free lunch counts were about twice the estimated eligible, prompting stricter verification. 

The bill ignores recommendations from a previous audit that the state should find a different way to calculate how much state funds should be allocated to at-risk students.

Currently, the number of students who qualify for the federal lunch program is also used as a proxy for determining at-risk funding.

The original version of the bill would have required schools to verify the income of all households that qualify for free meals, but it didn’t take into consideration the two ways students can qualify now.

Households can either apply for the national program based on their income, or students can be directly certified because of their involvement in other public programs such as Medicaid, the foster care system or federal cash assistance.

Kansas Senate Bill 387 would require verification of gross household income for all applicants, potentially turning a three percent random audit (the current requirement for schools) into a year-round task for school districts.

The bill adamantly aims to ensure only eligible low-income families receive free meals.

Opponents argue this bill would cause significant administrative burdens for the school districts and potential stigma for the kids, noting that many students are currently “directly certified” via other assistance programs.

Districts using the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for universal free meals may need state approval to continue in the state of Kansas, it was reported.

The bill didn’t include an estimate of how much the extra income verification step would cost schools, which raised alarm bells for Democrats and Republicans alike at the State Legislature. Some school districts estimated verifying income could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has recently proposed expanding access to free school meals for children, specifically by targeting the elimination of co-pays for students currently on reduced-price meal plans - like some other states have done.

The governor’s plan aims to provide free meals for about 34,400 Kansas students who currently qualify for reduced-price meals.

Gov. Kelly’s fiscal year 2027 budget includes $2.5 million to cover the cost of these meal co-pays.

The goal is to move these children from having a co-pay to having no co-pay, effectively providing them with a free lunch and breakfast.

A significant number of the students who would benefit are located in rural Kansas. 

While the governor and some Republicans share the goal of providing free meals for reduced-price students, there is significant disagreement over the legislative vehicle used to achieve this. 

Senate Bill 387 now includes the governor’s goal of covering reduced-price meal copays but adds strict income verification requirements for all families applying for free meals.

Kelly says she opposes SB 387 because its new verification rules could violate USDA regulations, potentially jeopardizing $250 million in federal school meal funding for Kansas.

Critics and school districts, such as Wichita Public Schools, argue that the bill’s requirement to verify every application would be nearly impossible to implement and would exponentially increase administrative work.

The bill also seeks to require school districts to get state legislative approval before participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows high-poverty schools to offer free meals to all students regardless of individual income.

Universal free school meals for all kids at public schools, not just the low-income ones, should be the goal in Kansas - just like it is in the other nine states, so far - because it is the right thing to do. With four grandsons under age eight, we know how important school meals are to their learning at school.

The federal government’s COVID-19 pandemic relief program, which provided universal free school lunches for K-12 kids, showed it could be done. Now, between the federal government and state government, it should continue to be done. 

Interestingly enough, universal free school meals in public schools could actually be an incentive in the near future to keep more Kansas children enrolled in public schools.