Mandatory School Uniforms.

Long Beach's Pioneering Experience Finds Safety and Economic Benefits

Two Years ago, when our school system set out to become the first in the nation to require uniforms in all elementary and middle schools, much of the public school educational establishment reacted skeptically. We were told that permissive parents, civil liberties interest groups, timid legislators, and a biased news media would not let it happen.

Now that we have had 1 1/2 years of implementation with 99 percent compliance and a substantial decrease in school crime, the same establishment is asking: How did you do it?

Board Leadership

In fall 1993, Proposition 174, a statewide voucher initiative that would have provided public funds for private and religious schools, was defeated by the voters amidst a rancorous debate about dissatisfaction with the public schools. Our school board members participated in those debates and promised the voting public that, if they defeated the measure, it would not be business as usual in the public schools.

Voucher proponents criticized large public school systems in various ways, including this faint praise and condemnation: "Even when some individual schools get better, the leadership doesn't have the courage to bring the reforms to the whole system."

This rang particularly true in our district because we had a highly successful pilot uniform program involving 11 of our 70 elementary and middle schools. Administrators in these schools were reporting significant improvements to school climate.

Board member Ed Eveland, a retired school administrator, took that challenge and commitment seriously. Three months after the defeat of the voucher initiative, Eveland's proposal for mandatory uniforms for all elementary and middle schools was unanimously passed by the board with a target starting date of September 1994. Individual schools were given the authority to meet with parents, teachers, and administrators to determine their own choice of uniform, incentives, compliance measures (within approved parameters), and means for providing financial assistance to indigent families.

Throughout our experience with mandatory school uniforms, the board has remained unanimous in pursuing full implementation of a policy that promises an improved learning environment and safety benefits for students. The policy also means substantially reduced clothing costs for parents.

Promoting Safety

Last year, the Public Agenda Foundation in its survey report, "First Things First: What Americans Expect from the Public Schools," revealed that parents and community members want public schools that are "safe, orderly, and emphasizing the basics." The report suggested that a public school without a primary emphasis on student safety is fraudulent in seeking any other improvements no matter how lofty or noble their purpose may be.

At uniformed schools in Long Beach, we're making student safety a top priority. Gang clothing is virtually nonexistent. Our uniforms thus provide a safe passage for children who must negotiate their way through gang territories going to and from school. Our students clad in uniforms need not worry about gang colors and styles. They don't have to focus undue attention upon making sure they or their parents select clothing colors or items that avoid inadvertently advertising one's self as a gang member. Uniforms go a long way toward providing a neutral coat of arms for children whose clothing might otherwise make them targets.

Our uniforms also allow easy and immediate identification of outsiders who do not belong on campus. Every administrator of a large school knows the potential for problems of disruption and violence when outsiders, including gang members, gain access to a school campus without a process of ready identification.

Some parents and members of the news media have asked why we didn't just stick with the vigorous enforcement of a dress code as opposed to mandating uniforms. The truth is that we have had a dress code in the Long Beach schools for three decades and in recent years had amended it to exclude clothing and articles favored by gangs.

However, as most school administrators know, gang colors and items of apparel change constantly. Successive bans against one item or color after another is like trying to hit a moving target. Uniforms eliminate the need for serial proscriptions of constantly changing gang styles and colors. Monitoring uniform compliance in our elementary and middle schools has been more effective than trying to enforce anti-gang codes.

More importantly, our first-year results in reducing on-campus school crime following implementation of mandatory uniforms are impressive. Occurrences of fighting, assaults, robbery, vandalism, and weapons possession have dropped sharply from the previous year without uniforms. Overall, we experienced 36 percent fewer crime incidents districtwide in our K-8 schools.

In addition, suspensions of students at our elementary and middle schools dropped significantly. Interestingly, this also was true at our high schools, which recorded 9 percent fewer suspensions last year.

As a school system, we were not anticipating such dramatic first-year gains and we'll be working this year with our researchers to ferret out whether other initiatives or interventions contributed to such impressive results. Suffice it to say that we are both surprised and delighted by these developments.

Learning Climate

In the past two years, our Public Information Office has received thousands of inquiries from parents and school systems around the country asking whether school uniforms benefit only communities where gang warfare already is pervasive and out of control. Our answer is that all parts of our school system, suburban and urban, have realized substantial learning environment benefits as a result of mandatory uniform implementation. Some of our more suburban schools were pioneers in mandating uniforms precisely because they did not want urban gang influences spreading to their schools. Both minority and majority parents supported these initiatives as measures that would improve the overall learning for students, even if their children lived in relatively safe, crime-free neighborhoods.

Our teachers and parents believe that uniforms help foster a professional mindset for students. Children in uniform come to school with the attitude they are coming to school to work. School is then seen as a workplace for teaching and learning. It is not seen as a battleground, a playground, or a fashion stage. Uniforms reinforce the expectation that school is, as it should be, a workplace for learning.

Many of our schools are reporting that they have enjoyed a noticeable decline in tardies, cut classes, referrals for discipline, and suspensions. This tangible benefit to the learning environment has created widespread enthusiasm for the uniform policy among large numbers of Long Beach parents, teachers, administrators, and business partners.

Easy Affordability

In Long Beach, most schools opt for a uniform that consists of a white shirt, blouse or polo shirt with collar worn with navy pants, skirt, or shorts. All schools have tried to adopt uniform arrangements that respect the socioeconomic diversity of our students. In our system of 81,000 students, a little more than a third qualify for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, while two-thirds are eligible for free or reduced price lunches.

We have found that the average clothing cost per child in schools with a student uniform is markedly less than that in schools without a uniform program, reducing clothing costs for parents. Typical uniforms in our area will cost $70-90 per year for a set of three. As most parents know, this amount is far less than many students spend for one item of designer clothing.

Uniforms can be obtained at local thrift stores, department stores, or uniform suppliers where families can shop for the best values. Our parents tell us that an initial modest outlay for a uniform purchase is more than offset by future savings.

The board of education has made it clear that no youngster should be penalized for failing to wear a uniform because of financial hardship. All schools are required to develop procedures and criteria to identify families in need of financial assistance.

In addition, each school designates a staff member or volunteer to help those families in need of assistance. Finally, each school works with staff members, the local school community, and business partners to identify resources for assisting families.

At the district level, the Long Beach Education Foundation and the Assistance League's Operation School Bell have raised more than $100,000 to support uniforms for poor kids this past school year. Hundreds of other local charities and individuals have come forward to offer their support to indigent families in our school community.

Compliance Challenges

Any school system planning to sail against the wind in setting higher dress, behavior, and academic standards needs to be prepared to defend itself vigorously. The forces committed to mediocrity and the status quo are, at times, legion.

During our two-year experience with mandatory uniforms, we have had two legal challenges that, as of the end of 1995, we have successfully countered.

The first came about two years ago in federal court when a group of parents who were lawyers sought a temporary restraining order arguing that no public school system could implement a mandatory uniform policy. In denying the plaintiffs' petition, Judge Manuel L. Real of the Central District of California indicated that he could find "no irreparable injury" in the action of our board of education.

Our second and most recent legal challenge has come from a group of attorneys at the Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach. They claim to fully support our mandatory uniform policy, but they argue we are denying poor children its benefits by refusing to make the program an entitlement one. They claim that poor families are going without food, utilities, and rental payments in order to purchase "expensive" uniforms. Their complaint demands that we provide six full sets of uniforms free to every youngster who qualifies for free or reduced price lunch.

We have no intention of complying with such an absurd request. Our community believes that poor people still have respect, dignity, and individual initiative. The last thing they need is one more government entitlement designed to foster greater dependency. Attorney Catherine B. Hagen of O'Melveny and Myers, a prominent Southern California law firm once headed by Secretary of State Warren Christopher, has agreed to represent our school system pro bono in this matter.

Another challenge that we've had to face comes from those parents who have decided to opt their child out of the uniform policy. The uniform legislation bill, which Governor Pete Wilson signed in August 1994, included a provision that required school districts to provide "a method whereby parents may choose not to have their children comply with an adopted school uniform policy."

While our school district would have preferred a bill without that provision, we've been able to maintain an extraordinarily high level of compliance at all schools for a year and a half. School principals, parents, and classroom teachers deserve all the credit for sustaining this success over time.

Future Prospects

Whenever I give a speech before a community group or service club, the first question from the audience is always about when, not if, we will bring mandatory uniforms to our high schools. And if the audience includes some of our genuine old-timers, they will point out that Long Beach high school students actually wore uniforms in the 1930s and '40s, confirming the notion there really is little that is new in education today.

As we look to the future, we are determined to bring the safety, learning environment, and economic benefits of mandatory school uniforms to our high school students, even though implementation will require even greater courage than we've shown so far.

One of our high school parent support groups actually is supporting implementation of a pilot uniform program at their high school for the 1996-97 school year. In the meantime, we'll be sending high school students, teachers and parents to visit high schools in San Francisco and Orange County, Calif., which are pioneering school uniforms this year.

As I look back on the past two years of this extraordinary adventure, I'm thankful to a courageous school board, incredibly supportive parents, hard-working teachers and administrators, a giving community of volunteers, and 57,000 elementary and middle school students who wear their uniforms with pride every day.

Some Basic Ingredients for a Mandatory Uniform Policy

If you are considering adopting a mandatory school uniform policy, you should consider whether the following five critical conditions are present in your community before going forward:

* A stable school board

Major policy changes that directly affect all students and parents cannot be considered when a school board is unstable or dysfunctional. Our board maintained its unanimity throughout this process, even though one school board member was elected to the city council and was replaced by a newcomer, who has shown nothing but enthusiasm for the uniform policy.

* Supportive parents and community

Early on in our discussions about requiring uniforms, the Long Beach Press-Telegram conducted a survey showing that 80 percent of parents and community members favored the idea of public school uniforms. Throughout the process parents of all races and socioeconomic levels have been very supportive, contrary to the conventional wisdom that urban school parents do not support higher dress standards.

* Resources to defend the policy

Too often school systems adopt a "controversial" policy without sufficient attention to the allocation of resources to defend the initiative. Nothing is worse than starting down a path to higher standards for students and then abandoning the cause at the first sign of trouble, such as a legal challenge.

* Capable site administrators

Although some would see this as a given, the success of any systemwide initiative depends on the ability of principals to successfully tackle a new challenge. If principals signal anything less than enthusiasm for a school uniform initiative, you will not get a high rate of compliance.

* Community philanthropic resources

Throughout the years, local philanthropic and service organizations have come forward to make sure that poor kids in our district have the basic necessities for school. Uniforms in Long Beach and other communities are serving as a positive vehicle for garnering additional community support for poor students.