File #: Int 1858-2020    Version: * Name: Reporting on dress code policies in New York City schools.
Type: Introduction Status: Filed (End of Session)
Committee: Committee on Education
On agenda: 1/23/2020
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: A Local Law in relation to reporting on dress code policies in New York City schools
Sponsors: Brad S. Lander, Diana I. Ayala, Stephen T. Levin, Adrienne E. Adams, Ben Kallos, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
Council Member Sponsors: 6
Summary: This legislation would require the Department of Education (DOE) to report on dress code policies in DOE schools, including information about whether schools have dress code policies, what those policies contain, including disciplinary provisions, whether those dress codes are posted to school websites, and information on dress code disciplinary violations.
Indexes: Report Required
Attachments: 1. Summary of Int. No. 1858, 2. Int. No. 1858, 3. January 23, 2020 - Stated Meeting Agenda with Links to Files, 4. Hearing Transcript - Stated Meeting 1-23-20, 5. Minutes of the Stated Meeting - January 23, 2020

Int. No. 1858

 

By Council Members Lander, Ayala, Levin, Adams, Kallos and the Public Advocate (Mr. Williams)

 

A Local Law in relation to reporting on dress code policies in New York City schools

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Report. a. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

School. The term “school” means a school of the city school district of the city of New York.

Dress code. The term “dress code” means any rules or policies pertaining to how students may or may not dress during the school day, including any disciplinary consequences that might result from a violation of said rules or policies.

Gender. The term “gender” includes actual or perceived sex and gender identity, including a person’s actual or perceived gender-related self-image, behavior or other gender-related characteristic, regardless of the sex assigned to that person at birth, and includes a person whose gender identity is not exclusively male or female.

Gender presentation. The term “gender presentation” means the external appearance, dress, mannerism and behavior through which each individual presents their gender identity or the gender they wish to appear as, regardless of the sex assigned to that person at birth, and includes a person whose external gender expression is not exclusively male or female.

b. No later than August 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, the department of education shall submit to the speaker of the council and post on its website a report on the dress code policies, if any, followed by each school. Such report shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:

1. For each school, the school name, school district borough number, whether such school has promulgated a dress code the students must follow and a copy of such dress code;

2. For each dress code reported pursuant to paragraph 1 of subdivision b of this section, whether the dress code is posted on the school’s website; whether the dress code includes disciplinary provisions; whether the dress code explicitly distinguishes between gender and gender presentation; whether the wording of the dress code is gender neutral or whether it explicitly creates different expectations between different genders and whether the wording of the dress code, if gender neutral on its face, effectively creates different expectations between different genders;

3. The total number of schools that have promulgated a dress code and the total number of schools that have no dress code; and

4. The number of disciplinary infractions that the school has issued the previous year based on the dress code, as well as any related consequences or penalties, disaggregated by month and week and further disaggregated by student gender.

§ 2. This local law takes effect immediately and is deemed repealed after five years.

NJC

LS #10837

9/10/2019