[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

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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