The Answer:

School officials have been tightening security measures all over the country in response to concern about the frequency of drug use and violence in schools. Requiring students to wear uniforms is one proposed solution that is gaining popularity and causing a lively debate between students, parents and administrators.

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, as of 1997, 3 percent of all the public schools in the United States required students to wear uniforms. Of that 3 percent, only one-third of those schools had the requirement in place before the 1994-95 school year.

—The Editors