(a) For each fiscal year, each local and regional board of education having at least one school building designated as a severe need school shall be eligible to receive a grant to assist in providing school breakfasts to all students in each eligible severe need school, provided any local or regional board having at least one school building so designated shall participate in the federal school breakfast program, pursuant to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, P.L. 111-296, on behalf of all severe need schools in the district with grades eight or under in which at least eighty per cent of the lunches served are served to students who are eligible for free or reduced price lunches pursuant to said federal law and regulations. For purposes of this section, “severe need school” means a school in which (1) the school is participating, or is about to participate, in a breakfast program, and (2) twenty per cent or more of the lunches served to students at the school in the fiscal year two years prior to the grant year were served free or at a reduced price.

(b) Grants under this section shall be contingent on documented direct costs of a school breakfast program which exceed the federal aid and cash income received by a school breakfast program. Eligible boards of education shall submit applications, on behalf of each of their severe need schools, for grants under this section to the Commissioner of Education. Applications shall be submitted in such form and at such times as the commissioner shall prescribe.

(c) Within the limits of available funds, the amount to which each eligible local or regional board of education is entitled for each fiscal year under this section shall be the sum of (1) three thousand dollars for each severe need school in the school district which provides a school breakfast program prorated per one hundred eighty days of the school year; and (2) ten cents per breakfast served in each severe need school. If the amount due eligible boards of education exceeds the amount of funds available, the grants calculated under subdivision (2) of this subsection shall be reduced proportionately. In each fiscal year, grants calculated under subdivision (1) of this subsection shall be paid in October, and grants calculated under subdivision (2) of this subsection shall be paid in equal installments in January and May. Based on verification of the data used to calculate such grants, any underpayment or overpayment may be calculated and adjusted by the Department of Education in any subsequent year’s grant.

(d) Each local and regional board of education participating in the grant program shall prepare a financial statement of expenditures that shall be submitted to the department annually, at such time and in such manner as the Commissioner of Education prescribes. If the commissioner finds that any school breakfast grant recipient uses such grant for purposes that are not in conformity with the purposes of this section, the commissioner shall require repayment of the grant to the state.

(e) The Commissioner of Education may temporarily waive any provision of this section or modify any requirements relating to the eligibility for participation in the grant program in response to any changes in federal law or waivers issued by the United States Department of Agriculture to ensure that local and regional boards of education participating in a federal breakfast program continue to receive such grants.