How Are School Dress Codes Often Unfair?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 20% of public schools required students to wear uniforms, and 44% implemented a "strict" dress code for the 2019-2020 school year.

Schools often ban hooded sweatshirts, loose coats, jackets, and hats. This is to make it easier for students to hide drugs and weapons and to make it harder for staff to identify students. Daily wear, such as sweatpants, sports shorts, and leggings, is also often prohibited. These policies have disproportionately affected students, with female and black students facing disproportionate outcomes. Coercion often makes these students less safe, but no more.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that schools that enforce strict dress codes enroll predominantly Black and Hispanic students. The report also found that dress codes "more frequently restrict items typically worn by girls" and that "rules about hair and head coverings can disproportionately impact Black students and those of certain religions and cultures."

“I think that the schools where we see the over-policing of dress and the enforcement of dress codes, it's not surprising that those are mostly students of color," says Courtney Mauldin, an assistant professor of educational leadership in the teaching and leadership department at the Syracuse University School of Education. “There's a lot of traditional, old-fashioned ideas around what it has to look like to do school. And I think people have good intentions, but they're very slow to change when it rubs up against what they've known.”

The result of these policies, the report found, is that this subset of students often faces more disciplinary action related to their attire, which in turn causes them to be removed from class more frequently and miss out on more instructional time. The report calls on the U.S. Department of Education to provide resources to school districts to help them make their dress code policies more equitable.
data from
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The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has long demonstrated that students of color are overly disciplined, not just in dress codes. 4,444 4,444 In an emailed statement to U.S. News, the department said it would "seek effective ways to share information with the school community on how to fulfill student citizenship on this important issue."

What is the dress code intended for?
In 2020, two black Houston students were told by school administrators that their hair, worn in dreadlocks, did not meet the school's grooming guidelines. Houston Public Media reported that he was suspended because he decided he was not. Hairstyle guidelines are often included in school dress codes.

A group of high school track athletes in Albany, New York, were removed from practice in May for wearing sports bras and no shirts. The male athletes on their Team were allowed to go shirtless, the Albany Times Union reports. The athletes were suspended from school when they launched an online petition about gender bias in the school's dress code.

GAO estimated that 93% of school districts have some dress code or policy, but not all are considered "strict." More than 90% of those rules prohibit clothing typically worn by female students: items such as “halter or strapless tops,” “skirts or shorts shorter than mid-thigh,” and “yoga pants or any type of skin-tight attire,” the report says. Meanwhile, it found that only 69% of districts were as likely to prohibit male students from wearing similar clothing, like a "muscle shirt."
"You can't see the skin," she says.


According to the GAO report, approximately 60% of dress codes require staff to measure students' bodies and clothing to ensure. As a result, adults may touch students, reports the GAO.“As a result, students, especially girls, feel less safe in school. “You may feel like you’re doing it,” the report said.

From an economic point of view, dress codes can be problematic for low-income households, especially if they have to buy certain clothes to wear a uniform.

However, income disparity is also one of the reasons some schools have introduced dress codes. David Verta, principal of Hammond Central High School in Indiana, says consistent policies help blur the "haves and have-nots."

Other policies have a significant impact on students of racial or cultural minorities, the report said. For example, more than 80% of districts ban headgear such as hats, bandanas, and scarves, but only about a third of districts said they allow religious exceptions, and only about one-third said they allow religious or cultural, or medical reasons. Some communities allow exceptions.