Proposal: Bathrooms in Pa. schools would offer feminine hygiene products
HARRISBURG — A state lawmaker has announced plans to reintroduce legislation that would require public schools to stock feminine hygiene products and make them available in the girls’ bathrooms.
State Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Chester, said that she was inspired to champion the issue after hearing from a high school student who said that at her school “students have limited or no access to menstrual hygiene products in the school bathroom.”
Students can get the feminine hygiene products from the school nurse, but in many school districts the nurses travel between school buildings and may not always be available.
Under Ms. Otten’s legislation, schools would be required to provide menstrual hygiene products, at no cost, in each bathroom of public schools serving students in grades 6 through 12.
According to a November 2017 study, nearly 1 in 5 American young women have missed school or left early due to lack of menstrual hygiene products, Ms. Otten said, noting that advocates and researchers have dubbed the problem “period poverty.”
“Having a menstrual cycle and being without the appropriate menstrual hygiene products should not impact students’ ability to attend school. In restroom facilities across our Commonwealth, basic necessities like toilet paper, paper towels, and soap are made available at no cost,” she said in a cosponsor memo. “And yet, 51 percent of all Pennsylvanians enter those same facilities and find their basic hygiene needs not fully met. Students should be able to access menstrual hygiene products when they need them, without having to ask someone for them.”
The legislation has been introduced in prior sessions but not made it out of the Education Committee. Though, with Democrats poised to take majority control of the chamber for the first time in more than a decade, bills that previously had been bottled up in the Republican- controlled chamber are more likely to get traction. Both the Democratic and Republican chairs of the Education Committee retired at the end of the 2021-22 legislative session.
When Ms. Otten introduced the proposal last legislative session, the bill had 29 co-sponsors but just two of them were Republicans — Rep. Karen Boback, RLuzerne, who is now retired, and Rep. Mark Gillen, RBerks.
House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, announced committee chairs last week, including that his pick for Republican chair of the Education Committee would be Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford. Democrats have not announced committee assignments, so it’s unclear who will be leading the Education Committee when Democrats take majority control. Three special elections — all in districts that lean heavily in favor of Democrats — are scheduled for next week. If Democrats win all three, they will hold 102 seats in the 203-seat chamber.