Before period products were readily available in school restrooms, Bristol Township School District students who unexpectedly needed a tampon or pad had to go through a public ordeal: asking to go to the nurse in class and walking down to the office.
Today, students can access the supplies privately with period product dispensers, a change educators said has reduced costs for the community and improved the accessibility of a healthcare necessity.
Pennsylvania’s investment in free period products for schools has allowed Bristol Township School District to combat inequity in the classroom.
Statewide funding
The district’s ability to provide menstrual supplies began in 2025, as a part of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s investment in free period products for publicly funded educational facilities across the state.
The governor recently announced that $3 million of his 2026-27 budget would continue to support the purchase of period products for over 750 school districts, intermediate units and brick-and-mortar charter schools. Private and religious schools are excluded from this boost in funding.
Over the past three years, the commonwealth has sent $9 million to districts across the state to fund the purchase of free period products, aiming to lessen the impact of period poverty in schools.
“Providing free period products in Pennsylvania schools ensures that more than 650,000 girls aren’t forced to choose between their health and their education,” said Debra Bogen, Pennsylvania secretary of health. “This important program removes the barriers to hygiene equity by providing these needed products, ensuring every girl has the support she needs to stay in school, stay healthy and focus on her future.”
Ease of access
This will be the second year Bristol Township School District will provide period products to students.
Regina Jones — Bristol Township coordinator of health services — said students know they can come to the health services office for any supplies they need.
The district also installed period product dispensers in the girls’ bathrooms at Benjamin Franklin Middle School and Neil A. Armstrong Middle School, as well as Harry S. Truman High School, making them readily available at all times.
“They just have free access to them. We do tell students if you need extra supplies to take home, feel free to take them because we do have an abundance,” Jones said.
Take-home packets for a student’s first period — which are kits including sizes of pads and sanitary wipes — are also provided in the elementary school.
Outside her role as coordinator of health services, Jones teaches girls about growth and development and uses the take-home packets as part of her lesson plan. Each student gets a kit, learns what to do with the supplies and when to use them.
The importance of free hygiene products
In the United States, 1 in 4 students reported missing class due to lack of access to period products and 1 in 5 students have struggled to afford or purchase any menstrual supplies.
Fran Held serves as the executive director of Mitzvah Circle, a non-profit based in Montgomery County, that provides essential supplies — such as period products — to families and individuals in need. For the past 15 years, the organization has been supplying schools with pads and tampons.
“We do this because we know how important it is that students go to school and parents can go to work,” Held said. “We hear from parents that they miss work because they don’t have access to products and can’t afford them.”
In Bristol Township, the availability of no-cost period products has made a material impact on the lives of families in the area, according to Jones.
District-wide nearly 94% of students are economically disadvantaged, according to the latest data from Future Ready PA.
“The cost of sanitary napkins and tampons can be very expensive for families. So for them to know that their kids can come to school and get supplies here, it’s been very cost effective to them,” Jones said.
In the classroom
Before period products were readily available in school restrooms, Tracey Gatte, Harry S. Truman High School theater educator and director kept them — alongside other necessities like hair ties, deodorant and lotion — in her classroom.
In the past when a student needed to go to the nurse for period products, it became a public spectacle of sort — they needed to ask in class to go to the nurse, have to fill out a pass and then wait for the nurse to accept it.
It was easier to keep the supplies in her room than make a student go through potential embarrassment to get one at the nurses suite.
“There’s not so much a stigma of them having to ask out loud in the class to go to the nurse because they know they could just go to the restroom and the products are there,” Gatte said.
Since the addition of period products in restrooms, Gatte has noticed less of a need for the ones in her classroom; however, she’s not getting rid of them anytime soon.
“I still keep the products. With after school activities and things like that, it just sometimes makes it easier,” Gatte said.
