Bills › 89th General Assembly
Relating to school nutrition standards and guidelines and to a nutrition advisory panel convened by the department of education
Topics:K–12 education
Where it is now
- Done: IntroducedJanuary 21, 2021
- Stopped: SubcommitteeDied when the General Assembly ended
- Next: House committee
- Next: Passes the House
- Next: Senate committee
- Next: Passes the Senate
- Next: To the Governor
- Next: Signed into law
Died when the session ended The 2022 session adjourned on May 24, 2022, the General Assembly’s last regular session. Bills that didn’t pass both chambers died. What’s a funnel?
What’s in it
AI summary Iowa would stop requiring the state board of education to create specific rules about what counts as a healthy school meal or what foods can be sold on campus. It also removes the requirement for a nutrition advisory panel to meet and review research for the state. Additionally, schools would no longer be required to monitor themselves for nutrition rule compliance or share those standards with parents and students every year.1
Read the official explanation
This bill strikes provisions directing the state board of education to adopt rules relating to the definition of “nutritionally adequate meal”, used by school districts and accredited nonpublic schools to provide meals that meet federally funded school meal program requirements, and requiring the state board to adopt rules establishing nutrition content standards for foods and beverages sold or provided on the school grounds during the school day, but exclusive of foods sold for fundraising purposes and foods and beverages sold at concession stands. Under the bill, “nutritionally adequate meal” means a lunch or breakfast which meets nutrition guidelines and standards promulgated by the United States Department of Agriculture. The bill eliminates a provision requiring the director of the department of education to convene, in collaboration with the department of public health, a nutrition advisory panel to review research in pediatric nutrition. Currently, the panel must meet every five years and submit its findings and recommendations in a report to the state board, which the state board must consider when establishing or amending rules relating to the nutritional content standards. Membership on the advisory panel includes at least one Iowa state university extension nutrition and health field specialist and representatives from the Iowa academy of nutrition and dietetics, the school nutrition association of Iowa, the Iowa association of school boards, the school administrators of Iowa, the Iowa chapter of the American academy of pediatrics, a school association representing parents, the Iowa grocery industry association, an accredited nonpublic school, and the Iowa state education association. The bill also eliminates the requirement that the director of the department of education monitor school districts and accredited nonpublic schools for compliance with the nutritional content standards, and a requirement that school districts and accredited nonpublic schools annually make the standards available to students, parents, and the local community. Currently, a noncompliant school district or accredited nonpublic school must submit to the director a corrective action plan that sets forth the steps to be taken to ensure full compliance. The bill makes corresponding changes.