SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Trustees Keep School Uniforms Voluntary
The Capistrano Unified School District board has left intact a school uniform policy that allows individual campuses to adopt a voluntary uniform code.
The board voted unanimously Monday to keep the current policy in place after backing away earlier this month from a proposed policy that would have allowed individual schools to make uniforms mandatory.
Under that proposal, schools could have instituted mandatory student uniforms with a 60% vote of that school’s families. Students whose parents opposed a mandatory uniform rule would have had the option of sending their children to other schools in the district with no uniform requirement.
But board members were divided over whether the district even needed the measure, which was seen in part as a way to reduce gang activity. They also expressed concerns about costs for extra busing and the added financial burden on low-income families with children in the district.
Four of the district’s elementary schools--Ambuehl, Palisades, Reilly and Wood Canyon--have voluntary uniform policies.
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