Kids have a right to water in US schools, but does that water make the grade?

Almost 15 years after federal law put free water on school menus, states still struggle with how to guarantee access

Christina Hecht remembers how water made its way into school lunch law because the process was unusually easy. Back in the mid-2000s, a researcher toured school cafeterias in California and wondered, What are these kids to do if they want a drink of water?" said Hecht, a policy adviser at the University of California's Nutrition Policy Institute.

At the time, 40% of the state's schools failed to offer free water in their cafeterias. That fact eventually reached the then governor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, who moved to pass SB 1413 requiring schools to offer free, fresh water during mealtimes. Advocates then used California's example to convince US senators working on 2010's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) - a federal package setting nutrition standards and food funding for public schools and childcare centers - to add drinking water to that legislation, too.