The Case for Support:
Why we need Policy to
Support Menstruating Students
The goal of this initiative rooted in the reality of two key factors:
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Menstruating students are disproportionately educationally impacted in their ability to learn in school when they do not have access to menstrual hygiene products.
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To achieve lasting, systemic change, policy must be addressed as practices and procedures can more easily be changed based on who is in power.
Students cannot thrive when their basic needs are unmet.
Lack of access to menstrual products (known as period poverty) affects attendance, concentration, and dignity, creating unnecessary barriers to learning and well-being. The high cost of menstrual products prevents some students from going to school, resulting in truancy and lost learning opportunities. Over time, this loss of educational time impacts the students' outcomes – adding a barrier to success.
Current barriers we can remove:
Addressing the link between period poverty and gender education gaps requires a multifaceted approach. Schools, policymakers, and communities need to come together to ensure that all students have access to affordable or free menstrual products through policy and funding.
The lived experiences around menstruation for people living in poverty in the U.S. are similar to those in under-developed countries. This issue is here, all around us.
Did you know?
In a recent study in the US, nearly half of students needed period products at least once last year at school but did not have the money to buy them.
Why Menstrual Equity?
Menstrual equity is the idea that everyone should have access to affordable and safe menstrual products. It is not only a matter of social justice but also a powerful tool for advancing education equality. When students do not have quick and affordable access to menstrual products, they miss valuable education time – whether it is waiting for a friend to bring them something, going to the nurse’s office across a large building, or missing school altogether, adding to gender inequities in education.
Over time, this inequity grows – leaving lasting impacts on outcomes for students.
Menstrual Equity Stats
When students lack access to essential menstrual products, their education takes a direct hit. Period poverty drives absenteeism and forces those who do attend to navigate severe discomfort, anxiety, and the constant fear of a public mishap. This emotional toll erodes self-esteem and shatters focus, reducing active classroom participation. Ultimately, when students are preoccupied with basic survival needs rather than their schoolwork, they are fundamentally locked out of the educational opportunities they deserve.
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1 in 4 students who menstruate experienced period poverty in 2023 (according to the State of the Period study by PERIOD). We know that without period products, these students are more likely to miss class and fall behind in school.
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2.4% increase in attendance reported among participating NYC schools following passage of law requiring free period products for students (from 2024 Alliance for Period Supplies Poll).
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1 in 3 low-wage women miss work, school, and other events due to lack of access.
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In a poll done by students in Chester County, they found:
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70.7% said: “I have used substitutes (ex. toilet paper/paper towels/napkins) instead of proper menstrual products at school.”
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68.3% said “I have extended the use of a menstrual product longer than recommended/comfortable due to lack of access.”
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74% said “I get embarrassed, anxious, or nervous when I do not have access to menstrual products at school.”
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72.1% said I have bled through at school.”
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54.4% said “I have skipped school or left early due to my period.
Why focus on Policy?
The case for school district policy:
Relying on informal school practices and procedures to manage student access to menstrual products leaves essential resources vulnerable to the personal priorities of shifting leadership. When an initiative rests solely on leadership, its longevity is compromised; a new building administrator can easily determine that restroom-accessible menstrual products are a luxury rather than a necessity, opting instead to centralize supplies in the school’s nurse's office. Similarly, without a binding mandate, the daily maintenance of these resources can collapse simply because a staff member chooses not to prioritize restocking them. Practices and procedures are fragile, fluctuating with the culture and convenience of the moment, whereas formal policy serves as an unyielding institutional anchor.
Enacting a school district-level policy that requires menstrual products be in restrooms at no charge to students ensures systemic adherence, creating a standard that guarantees compliance regardless of who is steering the administration. Policy removes individual bias from the equation, transforming a temporary good deed into a permanent structural requirement. This level of institutionalization becomes especially critical during economically challenging times. When school district finances face challenging shortfalls, unmandated student resources are often the first "discretionary" items targeted for budget cuts. Policy shields menstrual equity initiatives from fiscal hardship, ensuring that essential hygiene products are never treated as expendable lines on a ledger.
Ultimately, cementing menstrual accessibility into official policy is an act of proactive protection for student equity and instructional time. By elevating these practices into mandated policies, school districts build a sustainable framework that prioritizes student health and classroom engagement consistently, year after year, ensuring that no student’s education is disrupted by a preventable lack of basic supplies.
The case for state-level policy:
There are currently 21 states that mandate menstrual products be accessible in school restrooms – Pennsylvania is not one of them.
At The Fund, we recognize that true systemic change demands formal policy - whether at the local, state, or federal level. The most powerful way to ignite this change is by empowering students to advocate for their own needs directly within their communities. While the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 Pennsylvania state budgets successfully allocated dedicated funding for school menstrual products, they lacked one critical directive: where those products must be placed. Without a clear mandate, the vast majority of districts default to storing supplies in the nurse’s office. This creates an immediate barrier.
Menstrual products belong where students actually use them—in the restrooms. In sprawling modern school buildings, every minute a student spends tracking down a tampon or pad from a central clinic is valuable educational time lost. It is an unnecessary obstacle, and one that is remarkably easy to fix.
This gap is exactly why state-level policy is the ultimate goal. Relying solely on local districts means leaving student equity up to chance; there is no guarantee that every individual school board or administration will choose to adopt these policies on their own. Menstrual equity shouldn't depend on a student's zip code or the willingness of a local school board to pass a policy. Every menstruating student deserves uninterrupted access to their education, and a statewide mandate is the only way to guarantee that dignity is delivered to every restroom, in every school, without exception.