Schools in Vermont will be required to provide free menstrual products to students if a Senate-passed bill makes it across the finish line in the House.
The menstrual product mandate is tucked into S.115, the miscellaneous education bill, an annual piece of legislation that includes an assortment of modest education proposals. It would go into effect during the 2022-23 school year, and apply to public and approved independent schools.
Period products would have to be made available in the majority of gender-neutral and girls’ bathrooms that serve students in grades five through 12 and at the nurse’s office.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, said she championed the legislation because she couldn’t see a reason not to.
“It’s a long time coming, and I was very pleased to learn how many schools actually are doing this, but I think it’s an essential support that schools can offer,” she said.
Lawmakers contemplated such a mandate last year, but the measure was sidelined by the pandemic’s arrival. S.115 has already passed the Senate and received a unanimous endorsement from the House Education Committee last week. It still needs the OK from the House Appropriations Committee and the full House, but it has the support of House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, and is generally expected to face little opposition.
Gov. Phil Scott, who signed a law last year making Vermont the first state in the nation to require secondary schools to provide condoms, also supports the measure, according to his office.
The Vermont School Nurses Association strongly advocated for the proposal and urged lawmakers to expand past high schools. Sophia Hall, the association’s president, said a parent as recently as last year had confessed to weighing whether to keep their daughter home from school during her period because they could not afford to buy menstrual products.
“We should not be putting women in this position,” Hall said.
Other school officials have complained — gently — that the new requirement will be borne by local district budgets. But they have said they nevertheless support the measure, which is not expected to be particularly expensive.
“Every time there’s an unfunded mandate, I think we have to state it,” said Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association, who also testified on the bill on behalf of the organizations representing the state’s school boards and superintendents. But many schools already do this, he said, and the cost is well worth it.
“It’s something that we should be doing in schools, and we think it’s a good state policy,” he said.
A legislative analyst estimated the upfront cost of installing dispensers in schools statewide could be anywhere between $120,000 and $180,000 in total. The recurring, annual cost of restocking menstrual products should be on the order of $50,000 to $60,000 a year.
Similar legislation has been enacted in California, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee and Washington, according to the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office.
The school measure is not the only one this session aimed at making period products more affordable and accessible. The House and Senate have also approved S.53, which would eliminate the sales tax on menstrual products, although the chambers must still reconcile two different versions of the bill.
