VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Students in Volusia County could soon be required to wear school uniforms. Currently, there's not a district-wide dress code in Volusia County.
Every parent that WFTV talked to on Wednesday loved the idea because they will not have to buy expensive clothes for their kids. They get one color of pants, one color shirt, and their school shopping is done.
The Volusia County School Board is showing support for putting students in uniforms and hasn't ruled out the chance it could happen for the 2011-2012 school year.
A committee that worked for six months on the dress code issue found that 69 percent of people, mostly parents, want a strict dress code that could include uniforms.
Parents were more in favor of the uniforms than school administrators. Sixty-seven percent of them wanted a more moderate approach.
"There's cases where kids get away with one thing and others get in trouble for the exact same outfit. They need to be uniformed across the board," said parent Wanda Bradford.
Parents said it would make shopping easier and maybe even help with bullying issues that arise when kids aren't wearing what some kids consider "socially acceptable" clothes.
"There was strong support across everyone, every school; parents, teachers students. Everyone wanted a district-wide code, because right now it's just at the schools. Every school has something different," said co-chair of the dress code committee Nancy Wait.
Wait said the committee hasn't figured out just what a uniform might look like. They're going to visit Osceola County schools, where a policy has been in place for three years and where clothes can be purchased at any store as long as they're the right style and color.
It would take another month to develop a uniform policy and more time to pass it. The committee is trying to see if it can finish in time for changes to next year's dress code.
WFTV
