A new bill passed by Washington lawmakers last week promises to extend a portion of pandemic-era relief funding and provide 90,000 more students in Washington with daily free meals.
House Bill 1238 moved to the governor’s desk April 20. Though titled “Providing free school meals for all,” the bill would specifically support students at the elementary level, and it comes with a handful of caveats.
As it stands, schools provide free meals to students determined eligible by federal standards, which assess the child’s household economic standing and background.
With this bill’s passage, the program would be expanded over the next two years, starting with free meals for “any student who requests a breakfast, lunch, or both” in schools where at least 40 percent of the student body meets federal eligibility standards for free lunches at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
Beginning in 2024-2025, the bill would expand the program to provide free meals to all students in schools where at least 30 percent of the student body meets those eligibility criteria.
The state will reimburse districts for all these meals, so long as they meet federal nutritional requirements.
Many schools in Clark County’s two largest school districts — Evergreen Public Schools and Vancouver Public Schools — had already been able to qualify for free meals for all of their students through the federal Community Eligibility Provision, as a majority of students in each district were identified as falling within the low-income threshold. That program stands to continue providing meals to students through the 2025-2026 school year.
The bill had initially proposed to provide free meals to all children but was dialed back last month due to apparent budget concerns. The expansion is expected to cost $85 million.
