Hillsborough Reopens Its Leggings Ban After Parent Backlash, With a New Vote Tuesday and School Starting Aug. 10

Hillsborough County's school board voted unanimously on July 28 to reopen the leggings rule in its new student dress code, and it will take up an amendment at its next meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 4. That leaves six days between the vote and the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 10, while tens of thousands of local families are still buying clothes for the year.

The rule at issue: leggings and spandex are not permitted unless worn as an undergarment or covered by clothing that reaches at least mid-thigh. It was part of a broader rewrite of the student code of conduct for 2026-27 that district staff presented on July 20, less than three weeks before classes resume.

What the new dress code added

Along with the leggings language, the revised code adds several rules that did not exist last year, according to local news reports:

• Pajamas are no longer allowed.
• Shorts, skirts and dresses must reach mid-thigh when the student is standing.
• Face and head coverings are not permitted except for religious reasons.
• Jewelry with spikes is prohibited.

District officials said the rewrite came out of listening sessions with middle and high school students across the county, and that the point students pressed hardest was consistency. Board member Jessica Vaughn said students have told the board repeatedly that the old code was not enforced evenly: one student wears spaghetti straps and nobody says a word, while another student in the same outfit gets disciplined.

The district responded by adding a fairness clause. The policy now says the dress code will be enforced in a fair, respectful and consistent manner, and will not be applied differently based on a student's body type, body size, gender, race, ethnicity, disability or other protected characteristics.

The petition

Then the emails started. Vaughn described an onslaught of them. A Change.org petition titled "Reverse Hillsborough County Schools dress code decision," started July 22 by parent Oleg Martens, had more than 1,700 signatures when he addressed the board on July 28. It has since passed 2,200 verified signatures.

Martens, who writes that he is the father of two girls, argues in the petition that the leggings rule falls disproportionately on female students and sits awkwardly next to the district's own equal-application language in Policy 5511. He also objects to the timing: the change surfaced on July 20, with the school year about to start and no real window for parents or students to weigh in.

The board did not defend the rule. It voted unanimously to bring it back.

What happens Tuesday

The board is expected to consider amending the leggings and spandex provision at Tuesday's meeting. Board meetings are held at the Raymond O. Shelton School Administrative Center, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd. in downtown Tampa, and the regular Tuesday sessions have been running from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Public comment is the mechanism most parents will have left before Aug. 10.

What has not been said publicly is how far the amendment will go. Striking the leggings clause entirely, softening the mid-thigh coverage requirement, and leaving the rest of the rewrite untouched are all on the table, and no draft language has been released. The other new rules on pajamas, hemlines, head coverings and spiked jewelry are not part of the reconsideration as described so far.

Families who want to read the code themselves before Tuesday can find the current Student Code of Conduct on the district's website. If the board amends the rule Tuesday afternoon, the version students walk in under on Aug. 10 will be six days old.

For more from around the county, visit Tampa Community Website and follow us on Facebook. Parents, what do you make of the mid-thigh rule? Join the conversation in our Community Forum, and read more education stories and government and politics coverage from Hillsborough County.

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