Grand Rapids Public Schools will no longer require students to wear uniforms, reversing a policy implemented by the district a decade ago. In this MLive file photo, students arrive for the first day of Grand Rapids Public Schools at Sibley Elementary on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Starting this fall, Grand Rapids Public Schools will no longer require its students to wear uniforms to school.

The policy change is a huge reversal for the public school system, which has required all elementary and middle school students to wear uniforms for the last decade. GRPS is the largest school district in West Michigan with over 14,000 enrolled students this year.

RELATED: Uniform requirement eliminated at Grand Rapids Public Schools

The students at GRPS are largely in favor of ditching the school uniform code, especially in the higher grade levels, a recent districtwide survey found.

“I like wearing what I’m comfortable in. Uniforms are not comfortable,” one student wrote on the survey. “I just want to be me and not the same as everyone. Who cares what I wear as long as I am at school?”

But among parents, the answer isn’t as cut and dry. GRPS parents are nearly split down the middle over whether or not the district should require students to wear uniforms, according to results from the district’s survey.

The survey found 53% of parents who responded were in favor of GRPS requiring uniforms, while 47% of parents were opposed to uniforms. Over 3,000 parents responded to the survey, which was open for one week in April.

The district’s dress code, which was approved in 2012, was intended, in part, to eliminate distractions and teasing over the clothes students wore to school. The move was also seen as a cost savings for parents and a way to increase the focus on teaching and learning.

The district-wide policy was implemented in phases. K-8 students, since the 2013-14 school year, have been required to wear khaki-style pants, shorts or skirts and collared, solid-colored shirts such as blue and red. High schoolers had to make the change the 2015-16 school year.

While some GRPS parents say the uniform policy has leveled the playing field for students, other parents just view the requirement as an expensive nuisance.

Gladys Martinez, a mom with five kids in GRPS and one soon-to-be-enrolled child, said she spends nearly $500 a year on uniforms – which is on top of having to buy normal clothes for her kids to wear outside of school.

“In the long run, it becomes expensive,” Martinez told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press while picking her kids up from school Wednesday, June 8, at Martin Luther King Leadership Academy.

“The kids don’t stay one size; they grow pretty fast. So, right now at the stores, you’re looking at about $100 for just one child, and that will last them maybe five or six months, because then they will outgrow that, and you have to spend more money.”

About 61% of parents who responded to the survey said they don’t think school uniforms save money for their families, while 40% of parents said they do.

For GRPS mom Jeriesha Tillman, the uniform policy provided an easy and cheap option to dress her kids for school every day. Tillman said she’s able to easily find uniforms for low prices, and she saves money by re-using the uniforms for younger siblings who later need them.

“I think they made a big mistake, and they should consider bringing it back,” Tillman said Wednesday of the district’s decision to eliminate the uniform requirements.

Tillman also said she’s worried some kids could be bullied if students aren’t required to wear the uniforms. By ditching the uniform requirement, some kids could come to school with more expensive clothes, leaving others feeling embarrassed over their own clothes.

“Kids are into designer clothes, and some kids can’t get it,” Tillman. “We’ve got some kids whose parents can’t afford regular clothes. They’re going to get teased. Now, since they changed it, I think there’s going to be some problems.”

Nykeylah Smith, 18, who just graduated this spring from GRPS, said she remembers some kids getting teased for repeating the same clothes before the districtwide uniform policy was implemented in the 2013-14 school year.

“You’d get bullied – ‘Oh you’re wearing that today; didn’t you wear that last week?’” Smith recalled.

While district parents were mostly divided over the issue, it was the students who ultimately convinced school leaders to ditch the uniform code, GRPS spokesperson John Helmholdt said.

A group of students called the Superintendent’s Scholars Advisory Council, which comprises 20 high schoolers from across the district, strongly advocated for the district to change its uniform code this year.

Their advocacy is the reason the district decided to reconsider its uniform policies and conduct a survey to gauge input from parents, students and staff, according to a letter from Superintendent Leadriane Roby.

“The scholar voice in empowerment and decision-making around their education was the leading priority of what led to this decision to be made to eliminate school uniforms,” Helmholdt told MLive.

Nearly 70% of students who responded to the survey said they don’t think schools should be allowed to require uniforms. In a batch of sample comments from students provided in the survey results, several students noted that uniforms take away their creativity and are uncomfortable to wear.

GRPS also found that school uniform policies were not being regulated consistently across the district, leading to disproportionate disciplinary rates, especially for Black and Hispanic children. While uniforms were required in all K-8 buildings, some building leaders were more strict than others with regulating those rules.

“As we were looking for evidence to support our decision, there is very clear evidence that students were being sent home from school for not complying with school uniforms, and it varied by school, by building leader, by neighborhood, by theme,” he said. “So, in just that one issue, you saw the disparity that happened across the schools, from elementary to high school.”

The Grand Rapids Board of Education still has to vote on a new dress code, which is expected to happen in the coming weeks, Roby said.

The first day of the next school year is Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2022.

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