    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [February 24, 1996]
    [Pages 326-327]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Memorandum on the Manual on School Uniforms
    February 24, 1996

    Memorandum for the Secretary of Education

    Subject: Manual on School Uniforms

        Quality education is critical to America's future and the future of
    our children and families. We cannot educate our children, however, in
    schools where weapons, gang violence, and drugs threaten their safety.
    We must do everything possible to ensure that schools provide a safe and
    secure environment where the values of discipline, hard work and study,
    responsibility, and respect can thrive and be passed on to our children.
    Most schools are safe. But we must have zero tolerance for threats to
    safety in our schools. It is time to make every school the safest place
    in its community. Parents should be able to send their children to learn
    free of fear. All of our schools should be permitted to focus on their
    original purpose: education.
        Many local school districts have made school uniforms an important
    part of an overall program to improve school safety and discipline. Too
    often, we learn that students resort to violence and theft simply to
    obtain designer clothes or fancy sneakers. Too often, we learn that
    clothing items worn at school, bearing special colors or insignias, are
    used to identify gang membership or instill fear among students and
    teachers alike.
        If student uniforms can help deter school violence, promote
    discipline, and foster a better learning environment, then we should
    offer our strong support to the schools and parents that try them. We
    should applaud parents, teachers, and school leaders when they take
    courageous

    [[Page 327]]

    action to make our schools safe and free of gangs, drugs, and violence.
        The Long Beach, California, school district recently found that
    after students started wearing uniforms, there was a substantial
    decrease in student drug cases, sex offenses, assault and battery cases,
    and fights. The learning environment improved as teachers could focus
    more on education and less on discipline. Many other schools--in
    Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dayton, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Memphis,
    Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, and St. Louis--have
    also adopted mandatory or voluntary school uniform policies with
    promising results.
        I thus asked you, in consultation with the Attorney General, to
    develop information about how local school districts have made uniforms
    part of their school safety and discipline programs. The Department of
    Education, with input from the Department of Justice, has now developed
    a new ``Manual on School Uniforms,'' which sets forth the benefits of
    school uniforms; provides a road map for establishing a school uniform
    policy for schools interested in school uniforms; and describes various
    model uniform programs from a number of school districts across the
    Nation.
        Because maintaining safe and disciplined schools is an urgent
    priority in every local community, I today direct you promptly to
    distribute the Manual on School Uniforms to each of the Nation's 16,000
    public school districts. I also direct you to provide copies of the
    Manual to appropriate organizations representing parents, teachers, and
    school administrators, and to make it available to interested members of
    the public.
        School uniform programs are just one of the many initiatives
    undertaken by local school officials and parents to improve school
    safety and discipline. Other steps--such as truancy reduction programs,
    student-athlete drug testing, drug and gang prevention initiatives, zero
    tolerance for weapons, assisting teachers in addressing discipline
    problems, conflict resolution programs, and character education
    initiatives--have also been used to improve the education of our
    children. The Department of Education, in consultation with the
    Department of Justice, should continue to develop guidance and
    information about these and other initiatives so that local
    organizations, families, and educators throughout the Nation have the
    tools available to make our schools safe, drug-free, and crime-free.

                                                          William J. Clinton