Providing Free Breakfast to Early Childhood Special Education Students, Protecting Students with School Meal Debt, and Providing Summer Unemployment Benefits to Hourly School Nutrition Staff

H.F. 2497 / S.F. 2684 is Minnesota’s education budget bill. The 2023 bill requires schools to offer free breakfast to early childhood special education students, for which the state will reimburse them. The bill also amends existing law that prohibits schools participating in the national school lunch program from demeaning or stigmatizing students with school meal debt to specifically prohibit them from serving students alternative meals not related to dietary needs or non-reimbursable meals.

Additionally, the bill creates a new funding account to provide hourly school support staff, including school nutrition professionals, unemployment benefits during the summer months. This makes Minnesota the first state in the nation to provide these wage protections to hourly school employees.