Whatever Happened to School Dress Codes?

The recent hubbub about how U.S. Senators dress, especially Senator John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, got me thinking about dress codes.

Senator Fetterman with aides at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., September 2023.

Consider a recent headline from a New York Times article: “What We Lose When a Senator Can ‘Dress Like a Slob.’ ” The hullabaloo over how a male U.S. Senator dresses in casual clothes (e.g., hoodies and shorts), departing from the strong norm of wearing suits and ties led the U.S. Senate to pass a resolution restoring the formal dress code for both male and female Senators.

Dress codes signal “to those around us, as well as to ourselves — messages we receive and interpret constantly, consciously or not. There is no such thing as “total freedom” of dress, only different registers of meaning, which are entirely context dependent. Just as words make sense only relationally — in sentences and paragraphs — garments have meaning only in relation to other garments. A tuxedo’d guest at a wedding is unexceptional, nearly invisible. A tuxedo’d guest at a picnic is a spectacle.

Thus, context matters.

Not only in the U.S. Senate do dress codes matter but also in public and private schools. Note that President Bill Clinton in two State of the Union addresses called for public schools to have dress codes. Both parents and administrators support such codes. Nearly every public or private school now has a dress code that includes grooming of hair. About 20 percent of these schools mandate uniforms. Enforcement of these codes vary greatly, however, by race, ethnicity, and gender.

Students at Amosland Elementary School, wearing their new required school uniforms, leave the first day of class Tuesday, Aug. 31, 1999, in Philadelphia. Across Pennsylvania, many public schools are turning to school uniforms or strict dress codes in an attempt to improve discipline and school security. (AP Photo/Dan Loh)

In other words, administrators and parents generally want schools to have dress codes. Principals enforce the rules yet they do so in mostly schools with large percentages of low-income minority students. And for girls, more often than for boys.

In this 2018 photo, students socialize at Grant High School in Portland, Ore., after school let out. Portland Public Schools relaxed its dress code in 2016 after student complaints that the rules unfairly targeted female students and sexualized their fashion choices. Gillian Flaccus/AP

In 2022, the General Accounting Office of the U.S. government published a report on school dress codes and their enforcement. Leaning heavily on media reports between 2016-2022, the GAO found such instances as:

• A high school girl was told to “move around” for the school dean to determine if
  her nipples were visible through her shirt. The student was then instructed to put
  band aids on her chest.
• School staff drew on a Black boy’s head in permanent marker to cover shaved
  designs in his hair.
• A female transgender student was told not to return to school until she was
  following the school’s dress code guidelines for males.
• A high school girl was suspended for 10 days and prohibited from attending her
  graduation ceremony for wearing a top that showed her shoulders and back.
• Middle school girls were gathered at an assembly on dress code and told they
  should not report inappropriate touching if they were not following the dress code.
• A Black student was told he needed to remove his hair covering (also called a
  durag) because an administrator said it was gang-related.
• Two Asian American and Pacific Islander students were banned from wearing leis
  and tupenus (cloth skirts)—cultural symbols of celebration and pride—to their
  high school graduation.

Such instances, by and large, are rare when it comes to enforcement of a school’s dress code but when such codes lead to penalties including suspension from school they do fall disproportionally on Black and Hispanic students, particularly girls.

According to GAO’s nationally generalizable review of public school dress codes,
districts more frequently restrict items typically worn by girls—such as skirts, tank
tops, and leggings—than those typically worn by boys—such as muscle shirts.
Most dress codes also contain rules about students’ hair, hair styles, and head
coverings, which may disproportionately impact Black students and those of certain religions and cultures.

The widespread presence of dress codes across nearly 100,000 U. S. schools underscores the stark fact that nearly all students abide by school norms for clothes and grooming. If that is the case, why even have school dress codes?

The point is, according to what many school district officials, site administrators, and teachers say, such rules encourage better student behavior in classrooms and during school-wide events. Yet, there is very little evidence of a correlation between enforcing school dress codes and students’ behavior or even academic achievement.

Like so much in schooling, when parental values and public opinion merge with what most administrators believe is correct, policies like dress codes are a slam dunk. In such instances, evidence seldom determines policy. While occasional students and parents raise questions about what a school deems appropriate garb, nearly all students accept school dress codes in 2023.