The lunch rooms in some city schools are filled with vermin and flith, according to new health department data. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report.

Public school cafeterias rack up thousands of city health violations a year for unsanitary conditions, some stomach-turning – mice, roaches, flies.

At PS 340 in Chelsea, inspectors found 400 mice droppings in one visit.

But that's news to parents, who don't have access to the inspection reports.

"That makes me really uncomfortable because one thing that I look at when I'm even looking for schools, to see how sanitary everything is and how well they keep it up. So that's kind of disturbing," said parent Wandy Soto.

Now, two state lawmakers are proposing a law to subject school cafeterias to the letter-rating system used for city restaurants. And like restaurants, the cafeterias would be required to post their grades.

"Just like I want to know what the teachers' qualifications are, I want to know how the cafeteria's doing, what kind of environment is my son in," said state Senator-elect Marisol Alcantara.

To get the violation data, the lawmakers had to file Freedom of Information Law requests.

The number of violations has soared from 6,958 violations three years ago to 8,114 last school year.

"What we found was stomach-turning stories of, really, some bad conditions," said state Senator Jeff Klein of the Bronx.

Thirty-one schools would fail if the restaurant system was used. That includes PS 16 on Staten Island, where inspectors found nine violations in one visit, including evidence of mice and roaches. There were also mice in the cafeteria at JHS 210 in Brooklyn and at the Peck Slip School, a new building in Lower Manhattan. All would get Cs, the lowest grade.

"I don't think that any parent would be OK if they were to read this report," said Mona Davids of the NYC Parents Union.

Of course, unlike diners at restaurants, students can't choose which school cafeteria they eat their lunch in. But the lawmakers say they believe the public pressure will force schools to clean up their act.

The city Education Department says it would work with the Health Department to make the list of violations more accessible. But the legislators say the numbers should be translated to easy-to-understand grades and posted.