All School District 43 schools will provide free menstrual products to students in school bathrooms likely by the end of the year.
SD43 will be following through on a provincial order announced in April to provide the products, the aim of which is to end “period poverty” and reduce barriers to accessing education.
Dispensers for the free products will likely be available starting between November and December of this year, according to a plan described at last week’s board of education meeting.
The cost to providing two dispensers at each middle school and three at each secondary school, plus two types of products, is expected to cost between $80,000 and $120,000 depending on the installation challenges at each school.
At each elementary school, baskets of products will be provided.
And so far, the money to pay for the materials hasn’t arrived, according to SD43 officials; more details on funding is expected in the coming weeks. However, earlier press releases stated $300,000 will be provided for B.C. schools for start up funds, which, if SD43’s costs are in the $120,000 range would take up a third of the provincial funding, should that money become available.
The province had promised to help with start-up funding for the initiative, which follows a United Way campaign called Period Promise, which advocates for access to free menstrual products.
Among the issues the SD43 Student Leadership Council Advisory Group wants addressed with the new ministerial order are adequate containers for disposal, quality of products and environmental sustainability, sensitivity to demographic regions of the school district and socio-economic needs, placement of dispensers in universal (gender-neutral) washrooms as much as possible to reduce stigma, and dialogue with teachers to be sensitive to “restricting students from leaving classes.”
Currently, SD43 provides free menstrual products if students ask for them from teachers or counsellors. In some schools, such as Dr. Charles Best, products are available in baskets, and recently, a group of Best students convinced the city Coquitlam to provide free menstrual products at some city facilities as a pilot program.
