You Did It! Breakfast After the Bell is Now Law!

You did it!

Your stories, your answering calls to action, your public support has paid off: breakfast after the bell was signed into law by Gov. Inslee on Wednesday! Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, Washington’s high need schools will make breakfast a part of the school day. This will increase access to a nutritious school breakfast for low-income kids, helping them get the fuel they need to focus on learning.

Also on Wednesday, the Legislature passed HB 2610, directing schools to communicate with parents, not students, about uncollected school meal debt, and increasing the efforts of schools and OSPI to identify and enroll eligible students for free school meals.

But there are many reasons to celebrate the impressive work that was done this legislative session. Lawmakers made sound investments and passed common sense policies that will open opportunities for safe, affordable housing, health care, and jobs for struggling Washingtonians:

• The supplemental budget fully funds basic education for Washington’s 1.1 million students, including meeting court requirements to provide fair wages to our teachers.
• The supplemental budget also increases funding for WSDA’s Farm to School/Small Farms Direct Marketing programs, providing $144,000 in ongoing funding. This is critical for stabilizing the work of WSDA’s Regional Markets team in providing technical assistance and resources to help Washington’s growers build stronger, sustainable businesses.
• Thanks to the passage of HB 2578, landlords will no longer be able to deny tenants who use public benefits, including housing vouchers. State funding for housing and homelessness programs, provided by the designation of a portion of document recording fees, will be stabilized and increased, thanks to the passage of 1570.
• The Fair Chance Act will open more doors for qualified job applicants with a prior felony conviction, paving the way to better-paying jobs and reducing recidivism.
• Families with children will have increased support from the TANF cash grant to pay for basic necessities. The increase finally puts the cash grant back to 2011 levels. Additionally, more eligible families will be able to access the cash grant and TANF support services, including child care subsidies, without having to sell a reliable vehicle or spend down meager savings that can keep them in the poverty trap.

As House Appropriations Chair, Rep. Timm Ormsby has said, a budget is a “contract between generations”: these are sound investments and policies that will help prevent homelessness, increase access to nutritious food, and stabilize economic crises for struggling individuals and families with children. When our neighbors do better, all of us do better.

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