How many public schools have a dress code?

Answer 1

About all do, but the extent varies. Some have reasonable dress codes, while others seek to remove ALL autonomy in terms of dress and pretend everything is "disruptive." So the issue is not so much of whether there is a dress code, but how extensive.

Honor students should not be suspended nor expelled for wearing tiny nose rings or wearing dreadlocks. The school should have no right to control what someone does with their body or hair when at home. But when they forbid certain things at school, they are in effect forbidding them at home too.

It seems best for children to be around different ways of dress and different individual and cultural expressions so they won't be bullies or bigots when they are older. Yes, children should be taught to follow rules, but the rules must be reasonable and fair. Sure, life is not always fair, but we should never teach children how to add to the unfairness that already exists. Childhood is the time to express yourself.

In last year of high school, the school will generally be less bothered about students wearing their own clothing.