A central Illinois school district is implementing a “pajama ban” for students during remote learning this fall.
The ban is part of a new at-home dress code from the school board in the town of Springfield, where students will have a mix of in-class and at-home instruction due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Hats, caps, bandanas, hoods of any type, sweatbands, sunglasses, pajama pants, slippers, or shoes with wheels attached to the bottom shall not be worn,” the district’s school handbook already states — and that applies at home as well, officials said.
Students also are banned from taking classes in bed and must have their computer cameras on and trained at themselves.
“In our regular student dress code, it actually states that pajama pants and so forth are not acceptable school apparel,” Jason Wind, the district’s director of school support, told school board members this week, NBC News reported.
“And so this remote learning information that we put in, with the students’ rights and responsibilities that will fall back under that dress code,” he went on.
“They must follow the dress code of the building, and so no pajama pants.”
The district will be sending 14,000 students back to school on Aug. 30, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, according to NBC.
Students will spend two days in class for every three days of remote learning, with parents given the option to instead choose full-time remote classes.
Some district parents were reportedly puzzled by the at-home dress code.
One, John Freml, said the last thing kids needed was another barrier to learning.
“To put more barriers in place, ‘You have to sit at a table, you have to dress a certain way,’ does not make sense,” Freml told NBC News.
“We have to meet families where they are and not put up more restrictions,” he added.
