Youth Dress Codes: A Thorny Issue

Last week at the annual conference of the National Association of 4-H Agents and Youth Development Professionals I went to a session that was boundary-breaking as well as refreshing: On the topic of dress codes for youth in after-school or out-of-school activities. (Congrats to Alison White and the team at Washington State Cooperative Extension 4-H for a vital and thought-provoking session.)

It was great to see that school districts have offered some new models for how to frame this, although it must be said that as part of the Cooperative Extension system, all 4-H professional must first work with their University systems on legal and Title IX language and guidelines.

Speaking of Title IX, it sent a shockwave throughout the room to hear that any dress code for an after-school event set by our organization that lists different requirements based on gender violates Title IX.

From there, it's probably a good idea to ask: What is a youth dress code in an after-school setting? Who is it for? What is its purpose?

What if the goal was: a dress code that is safe, affirming, and non-discriminatory. This takes away the need to get lost in nitty-gritty details like: visible bra straps being intentional or accidental; where a girl's fingertips reach in relation to skirt length; the bagginess or tightness of apparel, and so on.

Instead, what if adults in youth programming agreed: A dress code is a safety code. This reformulation focuses on the event itself instead of the bodies of youth. Closed-toe shoes make sense in activities taking place at a County Fair or related to animals. So, there can be rules and regulations to keep participants safe from real physical harms.

It is possible to have a safety code or dress code without gender-based restrictions.

Many of the interactive activities throughout the session helped participants recognize subjective language:

• "Professional" dress, relating to which field? What socioeconomic class is being assumed here?
• "Appropriate," "Reasonable," etc. are words that every single person who encounters will define differently. This leaves far too much room for adult biases to shape how different youth are treated in our programs.

One suggested model for Portland Public Schools was shared as a starting point for after-school youth activities.

Full disclosure: This was a controversial session and I would not say the entire room reached consensus after the hour workshop. The resources and ideas shared have been on my mind non-stop since Conference. I'll be thinking about this for a long time.