This School District Just Voted to Provide Free Menstrual Products to Students

Young women attending high school in Tolleson will soon have access to menstrual hygiene products thanks to a new resolution.

On Tuesday, the Tolleson Union High School District’s governing board voted unanimously to support a resolution to provide menstrual products across the district’s seven campuses.

“No student should miss a day of school because they feel ashamed, or they do not have access to menstrual products,” said the Tolleson resolution. 

According to a recent Always Confidence & Puberty Survey, experts found that one in five girls in the U.S. opted to leave school early or missed entirely because they lacked access to a pad or tampon, which can negatively impact students academically and socially.

In the Phoenix area, few high schools have machines in the bathrooms, and although feminine hygiene products remain available for students who are homeless or below the poverty level, many girls feel guilty asking, noted a 2018 Arizona Republic report. Currently, Tolleson has approximately 18.3% of its population living in poverty.

After Tuesday’s board meeting Devin Del Palacio, board member and the resolution’s sponsor said he was proud to say Tolleson Union High is the first district to pass a resolution of this kind in the state of Arizona.

“As a parent of two young ladies, I understand first hand that menstrual products are not a luxury, rather they are a necessity,” he said in a Facebook post. 

Several states, including Arizona, have tried to bring down the cost of menstrual hygiene products by eliminating the value added tax for those products– sometimes referred to as the “tampon tax.” However, in 2019, a bill to eliminate Arizona’s tampon tax died in the legislature.

Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect the correct number of campuses within Tolleson Union High School District. There are seven campuses, but the original story stated six.