The school dress record, school system by school system: a code kept, and the uniform school

HANDBOOKS AS OF NOVEMBER 2026 · PENN-HARRIS-MADISON AND ST. PIUS X, GRANGER

The school-by-school test the checklist orders returns two clean findings and no abolition. The public system first. Penn-Harris-Madison, the corporation that seats this ground's public schools, keeps a dress code and no uniform: Penn High School's published dress code opens by saying it is intended to encourage students to “dress for success” and come to school properly prepared to participate in the education process; it prohibits any dress or grooming that disrupts the educational environment, is destructive to school property or threatens safety or health, and it itemizes the recurring lines — no fashion advertising or promoting drugs, alcohol or tobacco, no vulgar, suggestive or profane language, no gang, cult, illegal, violent or racist promotion, no visible undergarments, footwear secured to the foot, blankets prohibited — with the administration reserving the determination of appropriate dress, and the same code applying at school-sponsored events. The corporation's elementary and middle-school handbooks run on the same model: a conduct code with a dress section, no uniform requirement at any PHM building seated on this ground. So the “code kept” half of the checklist is the public finding: a code, kept, enforced by building administrators, uniform nowhere. The uniform school is the ground's Catholic school. Saint Pius X Catholic School, 52553 Fir Road, Granger — kindergarten through eighth grade, some 540–570 pupils — is a uniform school on its own published record: its parent FAQ answers “When can I order uniform items? Where do I order?” by directing families to its Uniform page, with fleece jackets and gym uniforms offered four times a year; its published dress-down-day rules exist precisely as the exception that proves the rule, permitting “any appropriate top” and jeans or athletic pants only on the named days, and instructing that a student who opts out “should wear their regular school uniform.” A third-party school record summarizes the week's rhythm as printed there: a blue polo with school logo and khaki pants Tuesday through Thursday, a spirit shirt and jeans Monday, a Mass uniform Friday — printed here as that record's summary, with the school's own FAQ and dress-down pages as the primary evidence of the uniform system itself. The abolished-code half of the checklist's pattern was tested and not found: no Granger-seated school in the record reached has abolished a dress code or dropped a uniform; the two systems stand as they are printed above, one coded and one uniformed, as of November 2026.

Sources:

1. Penn High School Dress Code, Penn-Harris-Madison Schools (penn.phmschools.org, dress-code document as published 2024), quoted and summarized as printed, consulted November 2026; PHM Parent/Student Handbook, 2019–20 (board approved May 20, 2019), dress-code section in the Code of Conduct.
2. Saint Pius X Catholic School, Granger (stpiuscatholicschool.net): FAQ page (uniform ordering; fleece jackets and gym uniforms four times a year; K–8 enrolment 540–570) and Dress Down Day page (“regular school uniform”), consulted November 2026.
3. Private School Review, St. Pius X Catholic School profile (Classroom Dress Code summary as quoted, labelled a third-party summary in the article).