Two MS Coast school districts are ditching uniforms next year. Here’s why

Two Mississippi Coast school districts will let students come to class next year wearing modest clothes of their choice instead of uniforms.

The Hancock County and Jackson County school districts are replacing worn-out khakis and polos with new dress codes administrators say are widely supported by parents.

“Our goal was to have students be comfortable,” said Hancock County Superintendent Rhett Ladner, “but also be more inclusive and allow students to wear the same clothes they wear on weekends.”

Many public schools across the country adopted uniform policies several decades ago in an attempt to stop bullying and improve focus in classrooms. But the strict style rules appear to be fading in favor of dress codes that give students more freedom.

The change in Hancock and Jackson counties is the latest across South Mississippi: The Pearl River County School District ditched its uniform policy six years ago, and Pascagoula-Gautier schools followed in 2022. A decade ago, more than 21 percent of public schools across the nation required students wear uniforms. But the most recent federal data show just over 16 percent of public schools are still asking students to do so.

Now, thousands of students who return to Hancock and Jackson County classrooms later this summer will walk busy halls dressed in jeans and T-shirts.

Not everyone is thrilled. Some frustrated parents have lamented on social media that the end of uniforms will force them to spend money keeping up with trendy styles and name brands and add another wrinkle to hectic mornings.

Still, Mississippi Association of Educators President Darein Spann said uniform policies have not solved the problems they were intended to fix in the decades since the trend in public schools began.

“It really didn’t yield the results that they thought it would have,” he said.

New dress codes

In Hancock County, which had required uniforms since 2004, administrators started discussing the issue earlier this year after several parents asked about it. Ladner said surveys found 70 percent of over 1,800 parents and staff who responded wanted a more flexible dress code. “It was overwhelming,” he said.

Jackson County Superintendent David Baggett did not return messages, and several school board members either did not answer calls or declined to comment. But school officials said in a board meeting this spring that 86 percent of parents who responded to its survey wanted to change the old norm of khaki pants and blue polos.

The new dress codes, outlined in each district’s handbook, do not allow crop tops, pajamas or sheer clothing, among other rules. They also forbid any clothing with offensive phrases or references to illegal activities such as drugs.

Ladner said staff in Hancock County mostly favored the update because the stricter uniform policy gave teachers more to police.

Spann, the Mississippi Association of Educators president, worked in Jackson in the early 2000s when the district required uniforms for lower grades but not high school. He taught in both settings and said he noticed little difference.

But after years in uniforms, new high school students were delighted to wear regular clothes.

“It was hog heaven for them,” Spann said. “It was almost like a sense of pride.”