Schools Find Most Students in Step With New Dress Rule : Long Beach: Administrators report 90% to 98% of their pupils were dressed in uniforms for the first week of classes. Fewer scuffles are reported.

Most elementary and middle-school students in Long Beach are complying with the district’s new voluntary policy to wear uniforms in class, administrators said.

Schools reported that 90% to 98% of their students were dressed in uniforms during the first week of classes, administrators said. Playgrounds that were once full of children in denim jeans and T-shirts are now full of students attired in white tops and navy blue skirts and pants.

Administrators say they have already noted an improvement in behavior. For example, schoolyard scuffles have declined at Clara Barton Elementary School, where all of the 995 students must wear ties as well as uniforms.

“You just can’t fight when you’re dressed up,” Principal Lue Dean Magee said.

The Long Beach school board’s policy requires students from kindergarten through eighth grade to be in uniform. Board members claim uniforms help students learn and may help protect them from gang violence.

Parents who object to uniforms must request an exemption for their children at individual schools. But so far, administrators said, few parents have filed such requests.

District officials say they will not begin enforcing the uniform policy until Oct. 14. Enforcement will be left up to officials at individual schools.

Principals at many schools said they favor rewarding students who wear uniforms rather than punishing those who don’t. Before the deadline, administrators plan to speak to students who show up at school without uniforms and don’t have an exemption.

“We’re not embarrassing the child in front of anyone. We’re just asking them if there’s a reason they don’t have a uniform,” said Marnos B. Lelesi, principal at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School. “To me, it isn’t a greater expectation than we would have for a student who didn’t do their homework.”

Lelesi said she and other administrators have found the main reason children have not worn uniforms is that parents can’t afford them.

Most schools are still seeking donations of uniforms for needy students, but so far demand has far exceeded donations.

The Rick Rackers Junior Auxiliary of the Assistance League of Long Beach is expected to donate two complete uniforms to 1,200 children this year, a spokeswoman said.

Some schools are using their own money to buy uniforms to lend to students, or have approached church organizations, service clubs, thrift stores and individuals for contributions.