Dearborn officials are partnering with their local school district to provide free sanitary pads to students.
A new grant will allow Fordson, Dearborn High, and Edsel Ford High Schools to provide the products in the bathroom, as well as with school nurses and the front office.
The Pad Project provided the grant. The organization says one in four teens has missed class due to not having menstrual products. Furthermore A study called "The State of the Period" found that 70-percent of students said school made them feel self-conscious about their period and that a quarter of students in the US have struggled to afford period products.
Dearborn Communications Director David Mustonen says this program may help address that.
“It's all about making sure that our students have whatever resources they may need," Mustonen said. "And if there are things that to keep them away from school, whatever we can do to kind of address that, we want to do that.”
Last year, Ann Arbor passed an ordinance requiring all public restrooms, regardless of gender designation to provide free menstrual products.