H.R. 2680 — Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025

This section repeals the reduced-price breakfast program under the School Breakfast Program and prohibits the Secretary from providing reimbursements for reduced-price breakfasts (42 U.S.C. 1758(f)). It makes conforming amendments to the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 by striking references to reduced-price breakfasts throughout the Act and eliminating related provisions in Section 4(b) (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq., 1758(b)). (Thus, school breakfasts are reimbursable only as free or full-price.)

This section repeals the reduced-price lunch eligibility category and reimbursements under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (i.e., National School Lunch Program). The program provides reimbursements to schools serving lunches to students, previously at free rates for the lowest-income students and reduced-price rates (up to 40 cents per lunch) for higher-income eligible students; this change eliminates the reduced-price tier and strikes all related references throughout the Act. (Thus, reimbursements apply only to free lunches and full-pay lunches.)

This section increases the income eligibility threshold for free lunches under the National School Lunch Program to 224% of the federal poverty level (from 130%) and strikes the third sentence of the eligibility provision. (Thus, the change expands free lunch access to additional households previously eligible only for reduced-price lunches, which are available up to 185% of poverty.)

This section revises the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(b)) to authorize local educational agencies to directly certify additional categories of children—including migratory children (as defined in 20 U.S.C. 6399) and eligible children—for free school lunches and breakfasts without further application, by verifying eligibility through data matches with relevant agencies. Eligible children include (1) those receiving Medicaid benefits who are members of households—as measured by the Medicaid program—with incomes not exceeding 224% of the federal poverty line; (2) those eligible for Medicaid due to receipt of Supplemental Security Income benefits or certain State supplements; (3) those eligible for Medicaid due to adoption assistance payments; (4) those eligible for Medicaid due to kinship guardianship assistance payments; and (5) household members of children described in (1)-(4). The amendments apply to school years beginning on or after July 1, 2025. (Thus, direct certification—i.e., automatic enrollment in free meals via interagency data sharing—expands to streamline access for approximately 30 million additional Medicaid-enrolled children potentially qualifying at the higher income threshold.)

This section requires a local educational agency to revise a previously submitted meal claim—defined as documentation provided by a school food authority to a state agency to receive reimbursement for meals served under the National School Lunch Program—to reflect a child's eligibility approval for free meals retroactive to the first day of the current school year. (Thus, schools receive the higher free-meal reimbursement rate for meals served earlier in the year to children later certified eligible based on household income.)

This section increases the multiplier used in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the National School Lunch Program to 2.5 (from 1.6) for school years beginning on or after July 1, 2025. (CEP allows high-need schools or districts—those with at least a 40% identified student percentage (ISP), based on directly certified low-income students—to serve free lunches and breakfasts to all students without household applications; reimbursement equals the multiplier times ISP, capped at 100% of meals served. Thus, the higher multiplier lowers the ISP threshold needed to claim full reimbursement from approximately 62.5% to 40%.)