Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 71.

This bill provides guidelines for schools offering or providing free or reduced fee meals to students, as discussed below. For purposes of this bill, "school" means any public elementary or secondary school that receives state financial assistance and includes an LEA. This bill requires schools to provide a USDA reimbursable meal to each student who requests one, unless the student's parent or guardian has specifically provided written direction to the school to withhold a meal. This bill prohibits schools from requiring students to throw away a meal after it has been served because of the student's inability to pay for the meal or because the student owes a meal debt. Under this bill, if a student owes money for five or more meals during a school year, then the student's school must attempt, on at least two separate occasions, to contact the student's parent or guardian to discuss the reasons for the meal debt and to offer any available assistance, including assisting the parent or guardian with filling out a meal application. This bill does not prohibit a school that complies with this bill from collecting a meal debt from a student's parent or guardian. This bill prohibits a school from: (1) Publicly identifying or stigmatizing a student who cannot pay for a meal or who owes a meal debt, including, but not limited to, requiring that a student wear a wristband or hand stamp; (2) Requiring a student who cannot pay for a meal or who owes a meal debt to do chores or other work to pay for meals; or (3) Prohibiting a student who cannot pay for a meal or who owes a meal debt from: (A) Participating in a school-related event or activity; (B) Graduating or participating in a graduation ceremony; or (C) Receiving a diploma. This bill requires a school to direct communications about a student's meal debt to the student's parent or guardian and not to the student. The school may send a student home with a letter addressed to the student's parent or guardian. This bill specifies that a school must not require a student's parent or guardian to pay fees or costs from collection agencies hired to collect a meal debt.