A Fairfax County School Board committee has pushed off considering any changes to an existing policy on optional school uniforms.
“It should just rest for now. There’s no rush,” Hunter Mill District Representative Melanie Meren said at the May 27 meeting of the board’s governance committee.
At the meeting, committee members voted 3-2 to postpone further discussion on the policy, which was first adopted in 1996 and last revised in 2011.
Fairfax County Public Schools currently allows individual schools to craft optional school-uniform codes for students, although no schools actually have one right now. Under the policy, schools can’t require students to wear uniforms, but they can offer incentives for doing so.
State law gives each locality’s school board authority over uniforms, within guidelines set by the Virginia Department of Education. FCPS allows uniforms in individual schools if 60% of parents sign a petition in support of them, but the school board retains final say.
Sully District Representative Seema Dixit, who grew up in an area where uniforms were commonplace, said she could see advantages in creating a culture where uniforms are encouraged.
“I’m not saying I’m in favor of that or not, but it’s a discussion worth having,” she said.
Dixit also suggested that FCPS consider a blanket countywide policy, either authorizing uniforms for all schools or prohibiting them entirely.
Superintendent Michelle Reid didn’t express her personal opinion at the May 27 meeting, but she said that decision is up to school board members.
“If the board wants to do that, they certainly can,” she said.
The uniform policy could end up being incorporated into future revisions to the student rights and responsibilities handbook that governs expectations for student behavior.
The school board last revised the regulations at its May 8 meeting. The changes included a divisive amendment to the policy on cell phone usage, letting high school students use their cell phones before and after classes start and during their lunch break.
With students seeking more consistency and flexibility under recently implemented restrictions on cell phones, school board members who supported the newly approved changes described them as a compromise that will prohibit phones in the classroom, while acknowledging the role they now play in students’ lives.
Opponents argued that the allowances will contradict a state law taking effect on July 1 that requires all school districts to restrict cell phones “to the fullest extent possible” during regular school hours.
