A new Arizona law will make snow cones, cupcakes, candy and sugared sodas legal for after-school fundraisers.
Such items were staples of school fundraisers, until new rules from the United States Department of Agriculture were implemented last July. Those rules required anything sold during the school day and for a half-hour after it, meet certain nutritional requirements.
Sen. Debbie Lesko said that hit a Peoria school, in her district, hard.
“My local school used to sell snow cones every Friday after school, raised $7,000 in one year. They donate it back to the accelerated-reader program," said Lesko.
The federal rules allow waivers from state school superintendents, but when Lesko went to former schools sSuperintendent John Huppenthal last year, she was shot down.
The legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Doug Ducey requires school superintendents to grant approval of the waivers, something school Superintendent Diane Douglass says she would have done anyway.