ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Allentown School Board is expected to consider making uniforms optional for students at a meeting next week.
Students want to wear hoodies and sweatpants, school officials say. The board created the uniform policy in 2013, but at a recent committee meeting, current board directors sounded receptive to creating a new dress code. While kids were highly in favor of doing away with uniforms, parental support was more muted.
- The Allentown School District is considering making uniforms optional
- Most students surveyed say they're in favor of eliminating the policy
- Data from parents show less support for changing uniform guidelines
“Wearing hoodies was mentioned hundreds of times,” Director of Student Services Tiffany Polek said. “That is all the students want to do, is wear hoodies.”
The district conducted six focus groups and sent out three surveys. Polek said more than 7,300 students in K-12 grades took one of two surveys, as did 20 administrators.
In the first questionnaire, more than 80% of students disagreed or strongly disagreed with continuing to make uniforms mandatory. Conversely, 61% of parents supported or strongly supported maintaining the current policy. About 2,500 middle school students and 824 high school students responded to a second survey in which 2,243 wanted the uniform policy eliminated. Others favored simplifying it or keeping it as is.
"Wearing hoodies was mentioned hundreds of times. That is all the students want to do, is wear hoodies."Director of Student Services Tiffany Polek
“I fully support this,” Director Jennifer Lynn Ortiz said. “I have been waiting for this day since Gianna started kindergarten.”
Polek said students wanted the ability to express themselves through their clothing. All respondents overall felt that students bullying other students over clothing would happen whether there were mandatory uniforms or not.
She said administrators complained about the amount of time they have to spend enforcing the dress code, which reduced learning time. They were also concerned about the cost of uniforms for families.
A review of Lehigh Valley school districts showed many of them do not require students to wear a uniform, including Parkland, East Penn and Easton Area school districts. Polek said some big urban school districts, such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Baltimore have uniform requirements, but it varies by school and the districts face problems enforcing them.
Board Director Evelyn Santana said she supported uniforms but was open to making them optional.
“I like uniforms in schools,” she said. “Not for the reasons that kids think. Not because I’m the mean teacher, but just to make sure that everybody’s wearing the same thing because I always worry about the kids that don’t have parents who can afford to get them the Nike or everything else. And I always worry about those children. But overall, I’m one to always side with faculty because they are the ones that are with our children all day every day.”
If the school board votes to make uniforms optional, it would create a new dress and grooming policy for the 2023-2024 school year to put into the student handbook.
Under the new guidelines, the board would still be able to require clothing standards or uniforms, but they would also say school staff should use the minimum necessary restrictions on students’ taste and individuality in clothing. In addition, staff would be required to model acceptable dress and grooming. The board could vote on handbook changes in June.
