State Guidelines for Exploring SSA

Today’s City Paper article about MPASS and the proposed SSA policy mentioned the Tennessee State Board of Education’s guidelines for districts considering a school uniform policy. Though not a legally binding document, the guidelines represent the right approach to this issue according to educational policy experts. Ironically, while the SSA Committee selectively quoted this document as part of its “study” process, it ignored many of the guidelines—specifically, those on parental involvement, opt-outs, and when to use voluntary, rather than mandatory, approaches (see Points 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8).