How to Reform or Abolish School Dress Codes
View the How to Reform or Abolish School Dress Codes PowerTopic
Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Sabrina Bernadel, who worked on this presentation while at the National Women’s Law Center
This presentation is best used after viewing the presentation “Can Dress Codes Harm Students?”
What’s Ahead:
- You have the power to advocate for school policies that make you feel safe, valued, and included in school. While the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) recommends abolishing dress codes, you may choose to modify these recommendations in the ways you feel are appropriate, such as an equitable dress code.
This presentation will cover:
- How a school’s safety and community goals can be met without dress codes
- Recommendations and resources for reforming or abolishing school dress codes
- School dress code reform benefits all students
- Steps to reform or abolish school dress codes
- Stories of courageous activism
- Equitable school dress codes
- Sample letters to school to reform or abolish school dress codes
Dress Code Reform Benefits All Students
- Reforming or abolishing your school dress code can benefit all students by shifting school climate:
- Away from how students look to how students are learning and feeling
- To a culture of consent and respect, where sexual harassment is not tolerated, and harassers are held accountable—no matter what students are wearing
- To rules that keep students safe and in class
All of these changes can lead to an overall better school climate for not just students, but the whole school community.
What Does it Mean to “Abolish” a Dress Code?
- Abolishing a dress code means getting rid of it!
- It can open a space where students and school leaders work together to create school safety and wellness policies that affirm students’ identities and keep them in class.
Steps to Reforming or Abolishing Dress Codes
- Step 1: Read your school or school district’s dress code.
- It might be part of the code of conduct or may be a separate resource.
- Codes of conduct are usually given out at school or on your school’s website.
- If you can’t find it, ask a teacher (and make note of that!).
- Step 2: Identify policies and practices that may impact certain students
- To help identify those policies and practices, ask these questions:
- Are there policies worded in a way that could violate a student’s rights?
- Who is most likely to be punished by this policy?
- Who have I seen get punished the most by this policy while in school?
- Are there stereotypes underlying this policy that might lead some students to be punished more than others?
- Step 3: Build support within your community
- Make or join a student group (make sure it’s diverse!).
- Use community spaces, events, and social media platforms to raise awareness and support for your issues.
- These can be things like PTA meetings, town hall meetings, local newsletters and publications, community Facebook groups, TikToks, and posts on Instagram.
- Step 4: Write your recommendations
- Make sure your “asks” are clear (such as abolishing policies vs. changing them, or setting up a meeting or town hall, etc.).
- Be specific about what policies you’d like to see changed and how.
- Collaborate with other students.
- Find adults at school and in your community who can help.
- Step 5: Share your recommendations with school leaders
- Ask your school leaders for a meeting.
- Write a letter to your principal, superintendent, or school board members (see our sample letters that you can modify).
- Speak at a school board meeting or town hall.
- Respond to a “request for public comment.”
- Ask to be included in future discussions about dress code reforms.
- Step 6: Hold your school leaders accountable (and add pressure, if needed):
- Start a petition.
- Protest at school.
- Go to the media.
- File a complaint with your State Department of Education and/or the U.S. Department of Education.
Stories of Courageous Activism:
- In 2021, Riley O’Keefe, a student at Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns, Florida, led a petition signed by over 7,000 people and spoke at a public meeting held by the St. Johns County school board to fight her school’s sexist dress code.
- The school edited yearbook photos of over 80 girls who had exposed shoulders and low necklines in their photos, without their permission.
- The issue received national attention, and the case was picked up by the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, who filed a federal civil rights complaint against the school.
- By 2022, the school district revised their dress code to be gender neutral.
- To learn more, check out this story in Education Week
- Sophia Trevino brought national attention to her middle school’s dress code issues in Cobb County, Georgia in 2021.
- She spoke out about how her school was being incredibly lax about wearing masks during a deadly pandemic but were strictly enforcing sexist, racist, and classist dress codes.
- She led student protests where, every Friday, students would wear t-shirts that criticized dress codes.
- Sophia’s advocacy was covered in media outlets across the country.
- To learn more, check out this story in the New York Times or in this segment on Good Morning America.
- Three girls filed a federal lawsuit in 2020 against North Carolina’s Charter Day School for a dress code that forced girls to wear skirts at school.
- They claimed the skirts requirement limited their ability to play at recess, caused embarrassment any time a teacher reprimanded them for sitting “inappropriately,” prompted harassment from boys, and resulted in lost learning time for dress code violations.
- The federal court found that the North Carolina charter schools were violating the U.S. Constitution with the skirt requirement.
- This decision was upheld by the federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
- To learn more, check out NWLC’s blog describing the case and the “friend of the court” brief NWLC wrote to support the case.
Equitable Dress Codes
- As a school community, you might decide you’re not ready to abolish dress codes yet, but you still need to see a change in your district’s dress codes.
- You can advocate for an equitable dress code – a dress code that supports educational access for all students and does not reinforce gender, racial, or other stereotypes in its language or enforcement.
- You can also look at materials from advocacy organizations that have published model student dress codes with recommendations for updated, equitable language and school staff training.
Compare Dress Codes
Texas Independent School District:
- Visible tattoos must be covered.
- Skirts, shorts and dresses may be no shorter than 4 inches from the top of the knee.
- Visible body piercings other than ears, small nose stud piercing, and related jewelry is prohibited.
- Spiked jewelry including earrings are not allowed.
- Sagging is not allowed
- Holes in jeans or pants must be at the knee or below
- Tight fitting workout attire are not acceptable outside of designated activity period such as dance or athletics.
- Pajama, sleepwear and blankets aren’t allowed.
- Shoes and sandals that have a back must be worn. House shoes and slides are not allowed.
- Sunglasses worn in the building are not acceptable unless given permission.
- The torso (shoulders, back, stomach, hips and buttocks) must be covered.
- Leggings are only acceptable with an appropriate top that extends to 4 inches above the knee.
Portland (OR) Public Schools:
Allowable Dress & Grooming
- Students must wear clothing including both a shirt with pants or skirt, or the equivalent and shoes.
- Shirts and dresses must have fabric in the front and on the sides.
- Clothing must cover undergarments, waistbands and bra straps excluded.
- Fabric covering all private parts must not be see through.
- Hats and other headwear must allow the face to be visible and not interfere with the line of sight to any student or staff. Hoodies must allow the student face and ears to be visible to staff.
- Clothing must be suitable for all scheduled classroom activities including physical education, science labs, wood shop, and other activities where unique hazards exist.
- Specialized courses may require specialized attire, such as sports uniforms or safety gear.
Non-Allowable Dress & Grooming
- Clothing may not depict, advertise or advocate the use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or other controlled substances.
- Clothing may not depict pornography, nudity or sexual acts.
- Clothing may not use or depict hate speech targeting groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation or any other protected groups.
- Clothing, including gang identifiers, must not threaten the health or safety of any other student or staff.
- If the student’s attire or grooming threatens the health or safety of any other person, then discipline for dress or grooming violations should be consistent with discipline policies for similar violations.
Resources
- Dress Coded: Black Girls, Bodies, and Bias in D.C. Schools (NWLC)
- Dress Coded II: Protest, Progress, and Power in D.C. Schools (NWLC)
- Dignity Denied: How Discriminatory School Discipline Leads to School Pushout (NWLC)
- 100 School Districts: A Call to Action for School Districts Across the Country to Address Sexual Harassment through Inclusive Policies and Practices (NWLC)
- Survivors Speaking Out: A Toolkit About Defamation Lawsuits and Other Retaliation by and for People Speaking Out About Sex-Based Harassment (NWLC)
- Oregon National Organization for Women (NOW) Model Student Dress Code (NOW)
- 4 Things Public Schools Can and Can’t Do When It Comes to Dress Codes (ACLU)
- K-12 Education: Department of Education Should Provide Information on Equity and Safety in School Dress Codes (U.S. Government Accountability Office)