The Jeannette City School District on Monday will join the growing number of public districts nationwide that have adopted a school uniform policy.

The measure passed, 5-3, at a school board meeting July 20.

According to the National Association of Elementary School Principals, more than 20 percent of public schools now have a uniform policy, most of them in large urban areas. Philadelphia public schools began requiring uniforms in 2000.

Supporters of uniform policies cite figures showing reduced suspensions and improved behavior in districts that adopt them. But Jeannette School Board President Shelly Beckner, 55, said she had additional reasons for introducing the measure.

"I'd ask parents to really look around at what their kids are wearing to school," she said. "Then they would know why we did this."

She added that clothing that revealed "underwear, cleavage and bellies" was not appropriate for school and showed a lack of respect for the school, teachers and fellow students.

"I've seen students going to school in pajamas and slippers, flip-flops, busting out all over," she said. "I really think the way you dress is the way you act."

Mrs. Beckner said she also had become concerned about the role clothing can play in bullying and peer pressure when she overheard a female student commenting on another's clothing as not coming from a fashionable store.

"And that little girl didn't come to school for days, until she had gotten clothes from that place," she said. "This policy will take the pressure off of families and students to have to pay for expensive clothes or decide what to wear to school."

Superintendent Sharon Marks said the administration is not referring to the new policy as a required uniform.

"We are referring to it as 'standard attire,'?" she said, adding that although district administrators had no say in the new policy, as district employees, they would fully support it.

The new guidelines require students to wear polo shirts, sweaters, turtlenecks or dress shirts in white or in the school colors of red and blue. Dress pants and skirts in khaki or navy should be worn, with dress shorts allowed May through September.

Socks are now required and shoes are limited to dress shoes, boots and sneakers.

Mrs. Beckner said that Jeannette already had a dress code that prohibited clothing that is revealing, as well as overly casual attire such as flip-flops -- but that neither parents nor school employees were enforcing it consistently.

Starting Monday, she said, parents, students and the administration will be accountable under a new set of rules.

For a first offense, parents will be contacted and required to bring suitable clothing to the school for a child to be able to return to class.

For a second offense, parents will be called and the student will be given in-school suspension. A third offense will require an out-of-school suspension, and subsequent offenses will mean the student appears before a school district judge.

Mrs. Beckner and Mrs. Marks conceded that news of the uniform policy had met with some resistance.

Joseph Yorio, 69, has served on the school board for 31 years and was one of three members who voted against the measure.

Mr. Yorio said his objections were less about policy considerations than personal convictions, but added that he would fully support the new policy.

He also said he was pleased that Mrs. Beckner had taken measures to make uniforms available to all district families, pointing out that Mrs. Beckner had secured funding through Jeannette's Parent Teacher Organization to offset the cost for those who apply.

Low-cost uniforms will be available at the Jeannette St. Vincent de Paul store.

Mr. Yorio and Mrs. Beckner said they expected some challenges to the new policy, especially from high school students.

"They'll be testing us for the first week or so," Mrs. Beckner said. "But I think the students will get used to it, and some will even like it."

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