Federal court in Maryland halts Trump administration's rollback of nutrition standards for school meals

"The Trump administration violated federal rules when it rolled back heavily debated nutrition standards for school meals programs in 2018, a federal court ruled Monday," Evie Blad reports for Education Week. "The U.S. District Court in Maryland vacated the rule changes and sided with plaintiffs, children's health advocacy groups that had argued the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated the Administrative Procedures Act, which agencies must follow in changing federal regulations."

The plaintiffs, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Healthy School Food Maryland, represented by attorneys from Democracy Forward, sued USDA in April 2019. They argued that it essentially pulled a bait-and-switch. The final rule, which allowed higher salt levels and eliminated the requirement for more whole-grain items in school meals, was too different from the draft USDA published for public comment, they said. "That earlier draft would have delayed those regulations and allowed some exemptions, rather than eliminating the standards altogether," Blad reports.