Senate Education Committee advances bill requiring schools to supply period products
BATON ROUGE – The Senate Education Committee unanimously advanced a bill Wednesday that would require schools to provide menstrual products in locations of the schools’ choice.
The bill, authored by Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, D-New Orleans, was first voted on by the House Committee on Education back in April. The committee, and then the full House, voted to advance the bill.
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The bill has been amended along the way. Originally, the bill noted school bathrooms as a place where the menstrual products could be available. During the House floor debate, it was amended to only say “easily accessible locations.”
Rep. Beryl Amedée, R-Houma, raised concerns then over why this amendment was needed. She said that bathrooms seem like the logical placement for menstrual products, and she questioned whether moving them to the nurse’s station or the school office might discourage students, especially younger girls who are having their first periods.
Freeman said that school districts are worried supplies will be wasted if they are put in the school’s bathrooms, as they would have no way to regulate them.
There also have been concerns about who would pay for the products. Freeman said the amendment also allows for the Legislature to appropriate funds to schools to pay for them.
In the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, Sen. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, expressed support for the bill and recommended that the Louisiana Legislative Women’s Caucus step in to find funding.
“We have too many young people who this becomes an issue for them sometimes, and they miss school,” Freeman said. “Believe it or not, they can miss school sometimes because they don’t have the products and they’re embarrassed to ask.”
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Senate Education Committee advances bill requiring period products in schools
