# 119-s-2944: No Shame at School Act of 2025

119-s-2944, No Shame at School Act of 2025, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Smith, Tina [D-MN] (D-MN); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-04-21).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2944
- As of: 2026-04-21
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-2944
- Congress: 119
- Title: No Shame at School Act of 2025
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-09-30
- Sponsor: Sen. Smith, Tina [D-MN] (D-MN)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Agriculture and Food
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-04-21

## Summary

**Mandatory certification for free or reduced-price school meals** would require schools to verify eligibility, retroactively adjust reimbursements to match current-year eligibility, and prohibit practices that identify or punish students over unpaid meal fees. - Families and students: Stops overt or covert identification of children with unpaid meal fees, bans discarding or removing meals once served, and bars using debt collectors or denying educational activities. Schools may send sealed letters and must limit communications so they do not shame children. - Local educational agencies: Would be required to perform eligibility certification rather than optionally doing so, must attempt direct certification, and must give households an application and guidance if direct certification is not possible. - Reimbursements and records: Requires local educational agencies to revise previously submitted meal claims to reflect a child’s eligibility for free or reduced-price meals beginning with the first day of the current school year, and defines a "meal claim" as the documentation used to obtain State reimbursement for meals.

## Provisions PRIA read

- Protect students from meal‑debt shaming: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would protect students from being shamed over school meal debt. Schools could not contact a child about unpaid meal fees. Schools could ban debt collectors and could not withhold grades or stop a child from activities for meal debt. Schools could not single out children with ti…
- Mandatory meal certification and retro pay: benefit, low. If enacted, the bill would require schools to try to certify a child for free meals when a household owes one week of unpaid meal fees. Schools would first try direct certification. If direct certification is not possible, schools would give a free-meal application, materials, and written and oral…

## Related bills

- 119-s-5071: Children's Safe Welcome Act of 2026
- 119-s-5022: Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act
- 119-s-2819: Head Start for America's Children Act
- 119-s-5283: Momnibus Act
- 119-s-1507: Agriculture Resilience Act of 2025
- 119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026

## Sources
- [119-s-2944 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/2944)

## Related
- [119-s-5071: Children's Safe Welcome Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5071)
- [119-s-5022: Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5022)
- [119-s-2819: Head Start for America's Children Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2819)
- [119-s-5283: Momnibus Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5283)
- [119-s-1507: Agriculture Resilience Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1507)
- [119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3990)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2944 (as of 2026-04-21).