The North Little Rock School Board has suspended its school uniform policy for the 2021-22 school year and a district-wide dress code will be created in the coming weeks.
The school board voted Thursday to approve a motion to suspend the uniform policy for elementary, middle school and academy students. School Board member Natalie Wankum was the lone opposing vote.
Micheal Stone, executive director of student and equity services, presented a rough draft of a school dress code policy that would replace the uniforms required for elementary, middle school and academy students. He said the decision on the uniform policy needed to be made soon to allow parents to start making plans on what type of clothes needed to be bought for the upcoming school year.
"We are going to make some adjustments," Stone said. "I took a lot of this from the high school dress code policy when we adopted this last year due to the pandemic. ... What we can do, since we are moving in this direction, is to make it district-wide dress code."
The decision comes after a survey conducted by the school district last year showed North Little Rock students and parents overwhelmingly oppose school uniforms.
Superintendent Gregory Pilewski said during a workshop in March that the board requested last year that the district gather survey data regarding whether students and parents favored school uniforms.
The survey was sent out to elementary, middle school and academy students and parents.
According to the data collected from 1,623 students and 1,385 parents, results overwhelmingly indicated that both groups preferred not to have a school uniform policy. Total district data showed 91% of students and 79% of parents voted against having a school uniform policy.
The proposed dress code requires that students wear shoes, and that clothing must cover underwear, a student's back, midriff, chest and buttocks. Half-shirts, tube tops, see-through and mesh shirts or any tops without a back are not allowed. Skirts and shorts must be of appropriate length and no shorter than mid-thigh around the leg.
Yoga pants, leggings, jeggings and any spandex or skin-tight garment must be covered by another garment that provides minimum coverage.
Sunglasses or any attire that covers the face is prohibited, along with hats, do-rags, hoods, curlers, picks, bandannas and combs. Any clothing that promotes alcohol, drugs, weapons, tobacco, gang affiliation, sexuality or profanity is also prohibited.
The school's principal will have final say regarding what is deemed inappropriate and what can be worn for special events such as graduation, prom and dances.
Virtual students must also follow the same dress code as in-person students.
Stone said the decision to ditch the school uniform requirement last August was made to help families who had been affected financially by the covid-19 pandemic and unable to purchase uniforms for their children.
The uniform policy for elementary, middle school and academy students required female students to wear any solid color shirt with no emblems or logo and any solid color undershirt. Skirts, pants and shorts had to be solid khaki or navy blue, and shorts couldn't be shorter than 3 inches above the knee.
Boys had to wear solid color collared shirts with no emblems, with pants or shorts that were solid khaki or solid navy. Cargo pockets were not permitted.
Boys and girls were required to wear solid color belts, socks and shoes, and all shirts were to be tucked into pants, skirts, skorts, shorts, capris or jumpers.