A North Carolina principal suspended a high school girl for 10 days and banned her from attending graduation and any senior activities because she wore a to school. An assistant principal in Texas to cover up a shaved design in his hair. And a transgender girl in Texas was told not to return to school until she followed the .
These are only three examples across the country over the past few years demonstrating how school dress codes disproportionately target girls, Black students, and LGBTQ students.
A from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that not only are school dress codes not equitable, but districts that enforce them strictly also predominantly enroll students of color. The findings come as schools increasingly clash with parents, students, and civil rights advocates over disciplinary procedures used to regulate what students can鈥攁nd cannot鈥攚ear to school.
The report also calls on the U.S. Department of Education to develop resources and guidance to help schools create fairer policies and more equitable ways of enforcing them鈥攑articularly when it comes to disciplinary actions that cause students to miss out on learning time.
GAO researchers analyzed dress codes from 236 public school districts (there are more than 13,000 districts) and conducted interviews in three of them from August 2021 to October 2022.
Alyssa Pavlakis, a school administrator from Illinois who has studied school dress codes, said the findings were not a surprise.
鈥淚t does not shock me that the reports are showing that these school dress codes are disproportionately affecting black and brown students,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ecause our schools were built on systems that were supposed to be predominantly for white people.鈥�
笔补惫濒补办颈蝉鈥檚 , published in 2018 with Rachel Roegman, concluded that school dress codes often sexualize girls, particularly Black girls, and effectively criminalize boys of color as their detentions and school suspensions mount.
What dress codes prohibit and who is impacted
Ninety-three percent of school districts have dress codes or policies on what students wear to school. School and district administrators said the policies promote safety and security for students. Prohibitions against hats or scarves, for instance, allow educators identify who is a student and who is not.
More than 90 percent of those dress codes, however, prohibit clothing typically associated with girls, commonly banning clothing items such as 鈥渉alter or strapless tops,鈥� 鈥渟kirts or shorts shorter than mid-thigh,鈥� and 鈥測oga pants or any type of skin tight attire,鈥� the report says.
Many of those policies, for example, prohibit clothing that exposes a student鈥檚 midriff. About a quarter of them specifically bar the exposure of 鈥渃leavage,鈥� 鈥渂reasts,鈥� or 鈥渘ipples,鈥� which are aimed at female students.
Almost 69 percent prohibit items typically associated with boys, such as 鈥渕uscle tees鈥� and 鈥渟agging pants.鈥�
鈥淢y girls definitely feel anger towards the school for not educating the boys and making [the girls] aware every day what they wear can be a distraction to the boys,鈥� the report quotes an unnamed parent in one district as saying. Some parents told researchers the policies promote consistency with values their children learn at home.
Other policies fall heavily on students from racial or cultural groups that have traditionally been in the minority, according to the report. More than 80 percent of districts, for example, ban head coverings such as hats, hoodies, bandanas, and scarves, but only one-third of these dress codes specify that they allow religious exemptions, and a few include cultural or medical exemptions. Fifty-nine percent also contain rules about students鈥� hair, hairstyles, and hair coverings, which may disproportionately impact Black students, according to researchers and the district officials that GAO staff interviewed.
For example, 44 percent of districts with dress codes ban hair wraps, with some specifically naming durags, which are popular among African Americans for protecting curls or kinky hair, or other styles of hair wraps.
The report also cites dress codes with rules specific to natural, textured hair, which disproportionately affect Black students. For example, one district prohibited hair with 鈥渆xcessive curls鈥� and another stated that 鈥渉air may be no deeper than two inches when measured from the scalp,鈥� according to the report.
Pavlakis said while the report did not contain details about how dress codes affect transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary students, it鈥檚 an important aspect of their inequitable nature.
How districts enforce dress codes
About 60 percent of dress codes make staff members measure students鈥� bodies and clothing to check adherence to codes鈥攚hich may involve adults touching students. An estimated 93 percent of dress codes also contain rules with subjective language that leave decisions about dress code compliance open to interpretation, the report says. The interpretations often target LGBTQ and Black students, according to experts quoted in the GAO report.
Schools that enroll predominantly students of color are more likely to enforce strict dress codes, and also more likely to remove students from class for violating them. This is particularly concerning because more than 81 percent of predominantly Black schools (where Black students make up more than 75 percent of the population) and nearly 63 of predominantly Hispanic schools enforce a strict dress code, compared to about 35 percent of predominantly white schools.
鈥淲hen we take away that instructional time because they鈥檙e wearing leggings, we are doing our students a disservice,鈥� Pavlakis said. 鈥淎nd at the end of the day, we鈥檙e doing our black and brown students a bigger disservice than anyone else.鈥�
The report also found that schools with a larger number of economically disadvantaged students are more likely to enforce strict dress codes. Dress codes can be challenging for low-income families to adhere to, especially if they鈥檙e required to buy specific clothing items, such as uniforms, or can only allow their children to have hairstyles approved by schools, experts quoted in the report said.
Finally, schools that enforce strict dress codes are associated with statistically significant, higher rates of exclusionary discipline鈥攖hat is, punishments that remove students from the classroom, such as in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, and expulsions.
That means students of color and poor students鈥攎ost specifically, Black girls鈥攁re most likely to face consequences for violating school dress codes, causing them to miss class time. The more class they miss, the more likely it is that they will fall behind in school.
While dress code violations do not often result directly in exclusionary discipline such as suspensions and expulsions, an estimated 44 percent of dress codes outlined 鈥渋nformal鈥� removal policies, such as taking a student out of class without documenting it as a suspension.
Districts also commonly list some consequences for violations of their dress code policies, such as requiring students to change clothes, imposing detention, and calling parents or guardians.
鈥淚n order for students to get to the point where they can learn, they need to feel a sense of belonging. They need to feel cared for and loved,鈥� Pavlakis said.
鈥淚f we spend part of our day telling students, 鈥榶ou don鈥檛 look the right way. You鈥檙e not dressed the right way, you could be unsafe because you have a hat or a hood on,鈥� kids aren鈥檛 going to feel loved supported a sense of belonging,鈥�
