Evry school can get donated old clothes for accidents/emergencies/underdressed kids. Wouldnt that be sufficient, for such instnaces?
Then, if you dont get the donated clotes back, it hasnt cost you a penny. You ar talking about a few hours at school without uniform due to an accident, I think. Not like the child is intentionally going against school dress code.
If the school demands that no child wear street clothes for any portion of the day, even in case of staying dry after an accident, then it would seem reasonable that the school foot the bill for replacements uniforms that dont get returned? I dont see how that bill should be footed by the parent group. Seems like a school policy thing you have going on. Something to ask your principal about, the monies youre spending on those replacements..

oops I meant to say " Extras Drive"

I agree with Soupy.. writing on the outside of the garments is akin to a Scarlet A. I do like the idea of the nurse just calling the parents.. and they also make Iron on labels for inside garments.. that could say " property of xyz school, please return".... that's probably better than a threatening letter right away!


I just can't imagine what's going on that you go through that much underwear and that many pairs of socks. Are they changing at gym and losing socks? Are they not potty trained? ( lol just kidding on that one)!

Ya know, it also wouldn't hurt to have a " Extras " for the nurse's office.. old uniforms, mittens, old coats, boots, as well as new socks and underwear. How many of us have bought a package of socks or undies for the kids and they wear one pair and decided the band is itchy or the socks aren't right? Perhaps people would donate some of those leftover packages!

Writing "Property of XXX School" on the back of the uniform will certainly make the child wearing it feel even more self-conscious about having an accident in the first place! I think it's very punitive towards the child, and totally inappropriate.

A better solution would be to sew labels to the insides of the clothing, so at laundry time, a parent can separate those items out more easily.

In conjunction with the letter stapled on the bag with the student's soiled clothes, wouldn't a phone call from the nurse/office be appropriate? Just to let the parent know what happened? I'd certainly want and expect one.

I think the combination, of phone call, labels in the borrowed clothing, and a letter attached to the bag of soiled clothing would really cut down on unreturned loaners.

THEN.. if it doesn't come back in 2 days.. send another:

Dear Mom,

_____________ (Nurse's name) has not yet received your loaner uniform. Is it possible Johnny left it on the bus, or in his backpack? Please return the uniform by tomorrow. The PTO spent $500 last year on replacing " loaner" unforms that were never returned. Unfortunatey, because of that, we regret to inform you that if you don't return it by ( 3 more days from now), you will be billed the full $X.00 for the cost of the uniform!


That would totally back fire at our school.

We have a uniform dress code too and we ask our parents for uniforms their students have outgrown to use for this purpose. The most the PTO spends is $400 a year for socks and underwear for oops. It's been working great for the last five years and parents are happy to donate their outgrown items for this purpose. We also use someof the uniforms for an exchange program we needed when we moved to a new neighborhood. The families were excited to have another choice but had a hard time affording the uniforms. We offer a few items to get them started and let everyone when sales are or on clearance. If we run short of a certain size, I love going to the second hand stores, I can handle $2-3 per item versus full price.

The note home never really worked for us and while writing our school on the underwear band has helped many parents assume we didn't want the items back.

Oh yeah, t-shirts left over from a fun run were purchased by the PTO and we put the CLINIC on the back of the shirt. These larger sized shirts (we are k-12) are great for bloody noses and instructions do reach the parent.