You have the power to build a more feminist space in your school

Not everyone gets to pick their school or how open-minded it is. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. If we work collectively as a team, we have the power to change things and make our schools more feminist and empathetic environments.

A FEMINIST Guide to Back to School

  • Our phones and apps hold sensitive data, making it important to protect our privacy from surveillance, criminalization and emerging AI risks—including the growing use of facial recognition in schools to monitor and collect students’ biometric data.

  • Schools contribute to the climate crisis from waste production to resource use.

  • All students should be allowed to dress in a manner that is comfortable to them, conducive to their learning, and in accordance with their gender identity.

  • Young people are voting, and the GOP can’t stop us.

  • Help stop book bans and protect our children’s freedom to learn.

  • The reversal of Roe v. Wade means that what students learn in sex ed is more important than ever.

  • Comprehensive consent education is crucial for developing a campus culture that opposes sexual violence.

  • Students, parents, educators, and communities all have a responsibility to address bullying in schools, online, and in their communities.

  • School readiness isn't just about having the right supplies, it's also about mental health. If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support, help is available.

  • Join the movement to destigmatize menstruation and make schools more accommodating for all students who experience it. No one should miss school because they can't afford the basic necessities they require.

Digital Safety

Our phones and apps hold sensitive data, making it important to protect our privacy from surveillance, criminalization and emerging AI risks—including the growing use of facial recognition in schools to monitor and collect students’ biometric data.

Overview

➜AI can be used to create convincing fake images, videos, voice recordings and messages or to impersonate someone online. Deepfake victims lost $600M to fraud in 2023 globally.

➜ In a UNICEF, ECPAT and INTERPOL study across 11 countries, at least 1.2 million children disclosed having had their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the past year.

➜ Some US schools are using facial recognition technology to collect sensitive biometric data from thousands of students, parents, teachers and staff. Studies show these systems disproportionately misidentify people of color, women, children and nonbinary people, making schools less safe rather than more secure.

How to take action

➜ Use Take It Down if an intimate image taken when you were under 18 has been or may be shared online.

➜ Visit the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative for support with sextortion, sexually explicit deepfakes and other forms of image-based abuse.

➜ Demand that using facial recognition technology is banned in schools at banfacialrecognition.com/schools

➜ Set some time aside to audit your phone:

  • Review which apps can access your camera, microphone, contacts and location.

  • Turn off permissions that are not necessary. Turn off stored location history through Google Maps and your Apple or Google account, and avoid sharing your location publicly in real time

  • Review the privacy settings of social media, period-tracking and health apps. Limit the personal information you provide on school-issued or shared devices

  • Protect your accounts with strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication.

➜ Follow @reprouncensored and @fightfortheftr to stay up to date on digital safety.

Climate Crisis

Schools contribute to the climate crisis from waste production to resource use.

Overview

➜ Schools represent the third largest sector of commercial building energy usage in the United States. School building energy consumption costs U.S. school districts more than $8 billion per year and produces emissions equivalent to 18 coal-fired power plants.

➜ U.S. schools alone waste 530,000 tons of food annually, according to a 2019 waste audit by the World Wildlife Fund reports.

➜ More than 87% of school buses of school buses are diesel-powered, creating air pollution that harms the environment and student health.

How to take action

➜ Research the impact your campus may have on the environment.

➜ Advocate for schools to turn off lights and heating and cooling systems on nights, weekends, and holidays.

➜ Encourage your school administration to use to solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and waste reduction programs like recycling and composting.

➜ Promote alternative transportation like walking, biking, public transport, and carpooling.

➜ Support organizations like @intersectionalenvironmentalist, @sunrisemvmt, and @atmos.

Dress Codes

All students should be allowed to dress in a manner that is comfortable to them, conducive to their learning, and in accordance with their gender identity.

Overview

➜ Over 16% of public schools in the 2021-2022 school year required students to wear a uniform, and nearly 37% of them enforced a "strict" dress code.

➜ Dress codes often target girls, students of color and LGBTQ+ youth, and students living in poverty, upholding harmful gender and racial norms. Examples could include prohibiting hijabs, natural Black hairstyles, or long hair for boys.

How to take action

➜ Get informed about your rights and learn how others are fighting back.

➜ Title VI prohibits federally funded schools (whether public or private) from discriminating based on race, ethnicity, or national origin.

  • For example, if your school has a policy that prevents Indigenous students from wearing tribal regalia, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

➜ Help end hair discrimination in schools by signing this petition and supporting the CROWN Act.

➜ If your school or workplace maintains dress and grooming policies that treat people differently based on gender stereotypes, let the ACLU know.

Voting Access

Young people are voting, and the GOP can’t stop us.

Overview

➜ Republican lawmakers in a number of states have been trying to enact new obstacles (such as eliminating polling places on college campuses) to voting for college students.

➜ 36 states currently have some form of in-person voter ID law in place, but the list of acceptable IDs varies substantially from state to state. Fourteen states —Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas— do not allow the use of some student IDs as voter ID.


How to take action

➜ Register to vote & check your registration status by texting ‘FEMINIST’ to 56005.

➜ Learn your state’s voting registration deadlines and laws at vote.gov.

➜ Intersectional feminist voters arrive at the polls or vote by mail with a plan. Build your custom ballot with Vote Pro Choice.

➜ Know your voting rights and track voting legislation.

➜ Does your state require voter ID? Do they accept a student ID? Find out here.

➜ Explore this guide to learn how to ‘Vote like an Intersectional Feminist’.

➜Track which candidates champion a foreign policy based on human rights, and which accept money from pro-Israel pacs.

Book Bans

Help stop book bans and protect our children’s freedom to learn.

Overview

➜ Books are under attack in the United States. They are systematically disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities. It is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted: books by authors of color, LGBTQ+ authors, and women, and books about racism, sexuality, gender, and history.

➜In 2024, 39% of banned books include LGBTQ+ people or characters and 44% included people of color.

➜ More books are being banned than ever before, despite over 70% of parents oppose book banning. Over 4,200 unique book titles were targeted for censorship in US schools and libraries in 2023.

➜ Book bans are ones aspect of a broader attack on free speech, which disproportionately impact students from systemically marginalized backgrounds such as LGBTQ+ students, low-income students, students with disabilities, and students of color.

How to take action

➜ Read GLAAD’s “Book Bans: Guide to Community Action + Response”

➜ Report censorship to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom or PEN America.

➜ Fight book bans through the school board with this guide.

➜ Report a book ban to PEN America.

➜ View Let America Read’s list of organizations to take action with.

Sex Education

The reversal of Roe v. Wade means that what students learn in sex ed is more important than ever.

Overview

➜ 39 states require schools to emphasize the importance of abstinence when sex education or HIV/STI instruction is provided, and 14 states provide abstinence-only sex education (SEICUS)

➜ Among the 10 states with the highest rates of teen pregnancy among girls 15-19 years old, five are states without mandated sex education: Arizona, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana.

➜ Sexually transmitted infections among adolescents and young adults have been rapidly increasing in recent years.

➜ Proposals to restrict sex ed coincide with abortion restrictions at the national and state levels.

➜ There is a growing movement to stop educators (in and out of the classroom) from discussing gender and sexual orientation. Sexual health information and queer content is being censored on social media.

How to take action

➜ Review your state’s current sex education laws and policies here. The SIECUS State Profiles provides an in-depth and up-to-date look at the state of sex education in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the outer United States territories and associated states.

➜ Use our abortion action toolkit to learn more about the state of abortion rights in the US and around the world and fight back to protect abortion access across the country.

➜ Get educated with Planned Parenthood’s free and inclusive sex ed resource for students, teachers, parents, and caregivers.

➜ Read FOLX’s LGBTQ+ Safer Sex Guide.

Consent

Comprehensive consent education is crucial for developing a campus culture that opposes sexual violence.

Overview

➜ Over 50% of all campus sexual assaults occur between the start of school and Thanksgiving break. Black, indigenous, and queer young people continue to be the most impacted by sexual violence.

➜ Only 15 states require sex education to include consent education. In the last two years, consent education policy has failed in upwards of 10 states and that is directly because of homophobia and the patriarchy.

➜ 1 in 6 freshman women experiences sexual assault in their first year of college. Black, indigenous, and queer young people continue to be the most impacted by sexual violence.

How to take action

➜ Review the consent laws in your state.

➜ Learn about your school’s prevention efforts and resources for survivors.

➜ Educate others on consent.

➜ Become aware of your legal rights as a student after an assault.

➜ Join the movement to make consent education more accessible, actionable, and relatable to young people.

➜ 💓 To every survivor, it wasn’t your fault, and it never will be. We believe you, we support you, and you are not alone. Survivor resources can be found in our Mental Health Toolkit.

Bullying

Students, parents, educators, and communities all have a responsibility to address bullying in inside and outside of the classroom.

Overview

➜ In the 2021-2022 school year, 1 in 5 students ages 12-18 experienced bullying. 22% of these students reported that the bullying took place online.

➜ Students who experience bullying are at increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement, and dropping out of school.

➜ There is no federal law specifically about bullying. The laws vary by state, county, and district.

How to take action

➜ If you're being bullied, let someone know. Confide in a trusted adult – a teacher, counselor, or parent; your voice matters. Remember, you're not alone in this.

➜ If you see someone being bullied, speak up. More than half of bullying situations stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied.

➜ Familiarize yourself with your school district and state’s bullying policies. All states have anti-bullying legislation. When bullying is also harassment and happens in the school context, schools have a legal obligation to respond to it according to federal laws.

➜ Report cyberbullying and online abuse.

➜ For more information, tips, and tools for individuals dealing with bullying, visit StopBullying.gov, PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center, Stomp Out Bullying.

Mental Health

School readiness isn't just about having the right supplies, it's also about mental health. If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support, help is available.

Overview

➜ More than one in seven U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year, and half of all mental health conditions begin by age 14.


➜ 44% of LGBTQ+ young people who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it. One in 10 LGBTQ+ young people attempted suicide in the past year.

➜ Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds.

➜ 55% of college students report seeking mental health care, but only 17% of them access care through campus resources.

How to take action

➜ Look into your campus’ mental health resources through the school’s counseling or wellness center.

➜ Explore crisis support resources, organizations for BIPOC communities, resources for survivors of sexual violence, and mental health advocates to follow and support via our Mental Health Toolkit.

➜ Learn to support someone struggling with their mental health through this online course created by Jack.org in partnership with Born This Way Foundation.

➜ Visit Gurls Talk’s list of UK and US-based mental health hotlines.

➜ Check out the Jed Foundation’s Back-to-School Resource Hub for high school and college students.

➜ Take a Mental Health First Aid course and learn to identify, understand, and respond to mental health and substance use challenges.

Period Care

Join the movement to destigmatize menstruation 
and make schools more accommodating for all students who experience it. No one should miss school 
because they can't afford the basic necessities they require.

Overview

➜ Worldwide, at least 500 million people who menstruate do not have access to the menstrual management services they require. 1.25 billion women and girls do not have access to a safe, private toilet, and 526 million do not have access to a toilet at all.

➜ Period stigma and a lack of menstrual health education have been root causes of systemic issues impacting students, families, and policies in the United States.

➜ Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. students who menstruate struggle to afford period products and 1 in 5 American girls have missed school due to lack of access to menstrual products.

➜ Additionally, 18 states charge sales tax on period products (as of July 1, 2026)

How to take action

➜ Combat shame and stigma by speaking openly about periods.

➜ Educate people about period poverty. Inclusive education about menstrual health is a tool for shifting culture about periods.

➜ Learn how to become a period advocate in your community at period.org/advocacy.

➜ Follow these nine leaders fighting period poverty and stigma around the world.

This toolkit was last updated 9/14/26