Girl In School Uniform Outfit

According to the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), the fraction of American public schools requiring some sort of uniform rose from 3% in 1997 to 21% in 2000.
Adolfo Santos, a political science professor at the University of Houston–Downtown, stated that many Hispanic communities in the United States choose uniforms because many immigrants originate from countries with schools requiring uniforms.
In 1994, the Long Beach Unified School District, in Southern California, required school uniforms in all elementary and middle schools. This began a trend for uniforms in American elementary public schools, especially in urban school districts. President Clinton mentioned LBUSD's efforts in his 1996 State of the Union Address. The adoption of school or district-wide uniform policies (or, alternatively, "standardized dress codes" – which are not as rigid as school uniform requirements, but allow some leeway within set parameters) has been motivated by a need to counter "gang clothing" (or, in the alternative, the pressure for families to purchase upscale-label clothing to avoid their children being ignored by "fashion cliques"), as well as to improve morale and school discipline.
By 2010, the percentage of U.S. public schools requiring uniforms had increased from 3% in 1996 to 18%.