Courtney Luciana file photo
Pads on display at a Dwight period product giveaway.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) intends to comply with a new state law that requires public school districts to provide students with free menstrual products in bathrooms — and is still looking to secure funding to make that mandate a long-term reality.
The law in question is known as the Menstrual Equality Law. The state legislature passed it last year, and it’s scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1. It requires public school districts to provide free menstrual products in all girls’ and gender-neutral bathrooms, and in at least one boys’ bathroom, in schools that serve students in grades 3 – 12.
During an Aug. 19 Board of Education Finance & Operations Committee meeting, city school district Operations Consultant Michael Carter updated school board members on the district’s efforts to reach compliance with that new law. He gave the same presentation to the full Board of Education on Aug. 26.
Carter said that upon his arrival he learned that the district’s staff attempted to find funding for menstrual dispensers and supplies, but “there was no funding to be found.”
As a result, Carter reached out to the state, which referred him to The Diaper Bank of Connecticut. The Diaper Bank received $1.95 million of American Rescue Plan Act dollars in July thanks via the state Department of Public Health to purchase and distribute period products to eligible schools.
Carter said the district will submit an application to receive support from the Diaper Bank, which would cover costs for menstrual products, shipping and delivery, and program evaluation. The Diaper Bank’s awarded funds, however, cannot cover the cost of wall-unit dispensers for districts.
“My recommendation if we don’t have enough money from the Diaper Bank is that we put permanent units on the first-floor bathrooms — and of course this is subject to negotiation — and just baskets in the second- or third-floor girls’ bathrooms and one in a boys’ bathroom,” Carter said during the Aug. 19 meeting.
Carter laid out a timeline for the district’s plan to submit orders for menstrual supplies with the Diaper Bank in September and to get the first delivery to schools in October. After that, the district’s schools will get quarterly deliveries of supplies.
“The challenge is going to be to find out what the gap of the delta is to see if we can find internal funds or, if not, whether or not the state will give funds to the health department to assistant us in this effort,” Carter said.
When asked what the district plans to do before its expected first delivery from the Diaper Bank arrives in October, in order to be in compliance by Sept. 1, schools spokesperson Justin Harmon said, “We will provide the schools with sanitary supplies to put out in baskets. The supplies will be provided after September and through June 2025 by the Diaper Bank of CT, utilizing a state grant for districts that will have difficulty budgeting for the expense of implementing the law. Facilities will cover the month of September.”
He added that if the district does decide to invest in purchasing and installing wall dispensers, each unit will come at a cost of about $400 apiece. “We will start with the baskets and see how we do. We will need to find funding for supplies after June and perhaps for dispensers as well,” Harmon concluded.
Maya McFadden Photo
Mike Carter: The challenge is finding funding for the unfunded, but important, mandate.
NHPS
Watch the full meeting above. The presentation on the menstrual product mandate efforts begins about an hour and nine minutes in.