Oregon bill to ban school ‘lunch shaming’ gets hearing
Bipartisan legislation intended to ban the practice of “lunch shaming” in Oregon schools received its first public hearing Thurs day in the House Rules Committee.
Chief sponsored by House Republican Leader Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte) and Representative Brian Clem (D-Salem), HB 3454 is modeled after similar efforts in other states that are meant to prevent students from being publicly embarrassed when their parent or guardian fails to pay their school lunch bill on time.
“Oregon suffers from one of the highest food insecurity rates in the country,” said McLane. “This is a problem that impacts families in every community in the state and one that deserves relentless attention from this Legislature. One of the ways we can address this crisis is by taking additional steps to ensure that our students have access to lunch at school without having to worry about being publicly embarrassed because a parent failed to pay their bill.”
HB 3454 would prohibit schools from forcing students to do chores or other work in order to pay for meals and would make it illegal to publicly identify or stigmatize students whose accounts are out of balance.
The measure requires school districts to work directly with parents, rather than students, when bill payment problems arise. The bill provides a specific process for schools to deal with negative accounts when necessary.
“This bill is not intended to let anyone off the hook for paying for lunch, it simply says we want schools to go directly to parents when a billing problem comes up rather than potentially embarrassing a student in the process,” added McLane. “I am hopeful that this legislation will be the starting point in a productive dialog about how we can continue to provide food security to students while they are at school.”
In addition to Reps. McLane and Clem, representatives from the Oregon Food Bank, Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon and the Oregon School Employees Association testified in support of the legislation.
