Success Stories

Georgia “Feminine H (Instagram Post)-2

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State Legislature Supports Period Product Funding for 6th Straight Year!

Georgia “Feminine Hygiene Grant Funding Timeline

When the Georgia State Legislature adopted the budget for the state’s fiscal year 2025 (FY25), it was the sixth straight year lawmakers included funding in the state budget for the purpose of providing period products in public schools and at local county health departments. Educating legislators about the need for this funding has been a core pillar of Georgia STOMP’s work since our inception. Funding for schools insures students are in the classroom and ready to learn at their maximum potential. Period product provision via the Department of Public Health (GaDPH) enables menstruators to be present in the workplace thereby improving the state’s economy. 

Currently, state funding is $1.5 M for the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). The funding is allocated based on the number of 5th – 12th graders at each public school in the state of Georgia. School level funding is totaled by school district and the money is relayed from GaDOE to each district. Local officials then choose whether to distribute funds to schools for school level purchasing, or period products bought in bulk and then distributed to schools.

FY25 also contains $350,000 for GaDPH to distribute menstrual discharge collection devices (MDCDs) via local county health departments. Each county health department can order MDCD’s from the GaDPH until the funding is exhausted. 

 

2023EOY

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2023 Looking Back – Looking Forward

Happy New Year!

As I reflect on 2023, I am excited about the development and growth that Georgia STOMP has undergone. The team we have assembled is committed to this work. We are diverse in perspective and in the gifts we bring to the mission. For those who have been a part of this effort since its inception in 2017, you know we began as a small grassroots movement in Macon, quickly spreading to Savannah and then statewide. Not until 2021 did we formalize the coalition, seat a board and plan for a future beyond Georgia STOMP’s initial leaders. After two years of intense formational work, the future looks promising because of the team we now have in place!

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Looking back at the past few years, nothing we have done has impacted the lives of menstruators as greatly as the funding in the state budget distributed via the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) and the Georgia Department of Public Health (GaDPH). With the help of both Republican and Democrat leadership at the Capitol, Georgia STOMP did that! Georgia was the first state in the nation to put a line item in the state budget for period product provision. Students in Georgia’s public schools have access to period products in ways that most states have not yet realized!

 Georgia STOMP works very closely with GaDOE leadership to construct the list of approved items that can be purchased with state monies, suggest best practices for distribution and train school nurses. Specifically in 2023, working closely with GaDOE and a team of researchers from Emory University led by Dr. April Ballard (PhD, MPH) and Alison Hoover (MPH), we spearheaded a project to ascertain the advisability of allowing the state “feminine hygiene grant” money to be used to install free dispensers in school bathrooms to facilitate student access. Input was received from school nurses and facility managers. The research resulted in GaDOE adding dispensers to the approved list of items that school districts can use their state allocation to purchase. Partnering with Georgia Association of School Nurses (GASN) and Children’s Hospital of Atlanta (CHOA), Georgia STOMP has been present at every major gathering of school nurses in Georgia this year. These face-to-face gatherings provide opportunities to both train nurses and receive feedback from them. This mutual education makes usage of the state funds more efficient and readies us for advocacy under the Gold Dome. 

2023EOY

Organizationally, with a full working board seated and trained, we were able to turn our attention to committee development, thereby giving more member organization leadership a voice in the direction of the coalition’s work. Currently, committees include Communications, Legislative and Finance. If you or someone from your organization is interested in joining a committee, reply to this email and we will include you in the list for 2024-2025.

As we move into 2024, an unfinished task before us takes us back to where we began – elimination of the discriminatory sales tax! Since the inception of Georgia STOMP, the number of states that have removed the tax has more than doubled. Georgia is now one of only 21 states to assess a sales tax on products about which we have no choice, are a medical necessity and are required for good health. As 2024 begins, YOUR voice is needed in this work! MUCH too often we hear from legislators that no one in their district has contacted them about the need to eliminate the tax.

Have you called, emailed, or otherwise spoken toyour STATE Representative and STATE Senator?

Have you let your friends and relatives in various parts of the state know to do the same?

Easy Take Action links are on this website. Use them and share them with others. We provide suggested language, but he emails are also easily edited, making it possible to personalize them quickly.

As I conclude, I want to remind you that 2024 is Membership Renewal Year. Georgia STOMP has a two-year cycle for memberships and EVERY organization’s is due to renew in January. Watch your inbox for an email with links from Membership Chair, Madison Shelnutt. Reply to it immediately to make sure your organization stays connected. It will only take a moment!

Thank you for being a part of this work. Please feel free to reach out with questions or suggestions at any time! We want to hear from you. We want to work with you to make Georgia the best state for menstruators!

Claire Cox, Chair Georgia STOMP, Inc.

2023 Looking Back – Looking Forward
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2022 Year in Review-2

2022 Year in Review

Georgia STOMP was impactful in 2022! Our efforts are making a difference throughout the state in the lives of those who menstruate.  As we prepare for 2023, it’s good to look back and celebrate the work we accomplished together as a coalition!

2022 Year in Review-2
Funding Timeline 2022

2022 “Feminine Hygiene” Grant Funding Timeline

This graphical presentation of state funding is a great way to understand the history of how the Georgia legislature is addressing period poverty.  

Georgia was the first state in the country to allocate state funds to address period poverty and allow students to be present in school and functioning at their greatest potential.

With the addition of 5th graders to the funding formula, FY23 contains $1.45 million for period products in Georgia schools!

Funding Timeline 2022
We Did It!

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Sine Die 2022 – Priority Success!

As it has been since 2020, the 2022 Georgia Legislative Session continued to present problems for advocates — January began with high COVID transmission rates. Combining the prevalence of the virus with Georgia’s low vaccination rates meant in person advocacy at the Capitol was a challenge! Nevertheless, Georgia STOMP advocates succesfully pivoted to new methods of education and outreach to elected officials.

The coalition successfully advocated to add $200,000 to the state budget for the purpose of providing period products to Georgia’s 5th grade students! This was one of three Georgia STOMP legislative priorities for 2022.

The addition of this funding means numerous elementary schools in Georgia will receive state funding for menstrual products for the first time!

Sadly, we have still not been heard regarding the discrimination resulting from state assessing a sales tax on menstrual products — a medical necessity about which there is no choice!

Georgia STOMP will regroup and present the newly elected 2023 legislature with a new version of the tax elimination bill.  (HB810 summarily “died” at the end of the 2022 session.)

We Did It!

Feminine Hygiene Grant Funding Timeline

2021 “Feminine Hygiene” Grant Funding Timeline

2021 “Feminine Hygiene” Grant Funding Timeline

In the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the Georgia General Assembly drastically reduced funding designated for the Departments of Education and Public Health to purchase period products. With elected officials having no appetite for tax cuts in the 2020 and 2021 legislative sessions, Georgia STOMP’s focus became ensuring product availability in schools and at community health departments.

With the Governor’s restoration of funds for the provision of “feminine hygiene products” in his Amended FY21 budget, and data obtained from surveys of Georgia public school nurses, Georgia STOMP successfully worked with bipartisan leaders in the House and Senate to increase funding to the Department of Education to $1.25 million and reinstate the previously eliminated line item for the Department of Public Health, funding at a level of $200,000.

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Data Matters! A Research Update

RESEARCH HAS BEEN NEEDED!

Since the work of Georgia STOMP began in 2017, leaders have tried to base advocacy decisions on hard data and known facts concerning the need for period products in various cohorts of Georgia’s population.

The recurring issue has been a severe lack of data! Research exists in low-income countries, but the need for period products in the US, remains, for the most part, undocumented. Other than an oft repeated result of a study done in 2017 by Always Brand — “Nearly 1 in 5 American Girls Have Missed School Due to Lack of Period Protection” — little data has existed.

THAT IS CHANGING! 

In February of 2019, a study out of St. Louis University looked at the  “Unmet Menstrual Hygiene Needs Among Low-Income Women.” Georgia STOMP attendees at the 2019 National Summit for Period Leadership were thrilled to hear a presentation of that study by lead researcher, Dr. Anne Sebert Kuhlmann. Look for an article published by Dr. Kuhlmann, soon!

At the same event, Dr. Kelley Massengale, Director Research & Evaluation at the Diaper Bank of North Carolina, presented research compiling data from The Alliance for Period Supplies (APS) Allied Programs. These programs provide menstrual products at locations throughout the country. A full paper on that research is forthcoming, but Dr. Massengale, recently provided Georgia STOMP with a summary of the preliminary results.

GREAT NEWS FOR GEORGIA!

As Georgia STOMP has grown as a coalition, a concerted effort has been made to connect with public health researchers throughout the state working to understand the health needs of women. Numerous of these distinguished researchers have formally joined the coalition and are pursuing research projects to shed light on unmet menstrual needs in Georgia. We are grateful for their input, insights and guidance as we seek to align public policy with the need for menstrual equity.

Additionally, Georgia STOMP is aware of 4 research projects addressing menstrual equity and the elimination of period poverty currently underway:

  1. Andrea Swartzendruber, PhD, MPH with UGa’s College of Public Health has recently been awarded a grant to study unmet menstrual health needs and their consequences among middle- and high-school students in two Georgia school districts.
  2. Drs. Yameika Head, Ryan Davies and Melanie Vega in conjunction with a team at Mercer University including Dr. Betsy Smith and student doctor Haley Vale, are working with Georgia STOMP member organization, Macon Periods Easier, led by Andrea Cooke, MFT Doctoral Candidate, to study the prevalence of period poverty and how it affects students in Bibb County Public Schools. 
  3. Jenn Williams, Behavioral Sciences and Health Education MPH Candidate at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, recently did a project on “How does menstrual health impact school performance in public high schools in Georgia?”
  4. Emory graduate students, Alison Hoover (MPH student, class of 2021) and April Ballard (PhD Candidate in Env Health) were recently awarded a grant from the 120 under 40 program, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health and Bayer, to focus on the needs of those experiencing homelessness in relation to COVID-19, family planning, and menstruation, specifically looking at what products are preferred, and with what frequency and quantity. 

The existence of these studies and how they will inform future advocacy and policy work of Georgia STOMP cannot be overstated!

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160+ School Nurses Attend Georgia STOMP Webinar!

Feminine Hygiene Product Distribution Webinar Presentation Team (Matt Cardoza, Lynne Meadows, Dr. Andrea Swartzendruber, Tabitha Coverson and Adele Stewart)
Feminine Hygiene Product Distribution Webinar Presentation Team (Matt Cardoza, Lynne Meadows, Dr. Andrea Swartzendruber, Tabitha Coverson and Adele Stewart)

 

On Monday, February 24th, Georgia STOMP, in cooperation with partner, Georgia Association of School Nurses (GASN), held a webinar for school nurses to learn more about the funding available for the purchase of period products in Georgia’s schools. The webinar was hosted by the Department of Education (DOE), with Matt Cardoza, Assistant Director of Policy and External Affairs, providing crucial assistance both operationally and as a participant, answering questions from attendees.

Lynne Meadows, GASN State Director, has worked closely with Georgia STOMP to assist school nurses efficiently distribute funds allocated by the state  for the purpose of providing feminine hygiene products in schools. This webinar was a natural next step in the GASN/Georgia STOMP partnership.

Over 160 nurses/counselors/social workers joined online to learn how the money was distributed and hear three case studies regarding best practices underway in Georgia. Distribution programs in Muscogee County (Florene Dawkins), Troup County (Tabitha Coverson) and Marietta City Schools (Dr. Rona Roberts) were highlighted. Additionally, Dr. Andrea Swartzendruber  from UGa’s College of Public Health, discussed the need for these products and the negative effects on learning, self-image and development, that a lack of period products can cause.

A Q&A session at the conclusion of the presentations was fully utilized by nurses, with questions submitted from all over the state. With GASN, DOE, Georgia STOMP, experienced nurses and those leading the state with successful wrap-around services, all in the room, it was an informative session of learning what the money can, and cannot, be used for and how to spend it.

If you missed the webinar, it is well worth a listen. You will find it here.

Thank you to all our presenters and to GASN and DOE for such a fruitful partnership!

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DOE Money Finally Distributed!

With the 2019 legislative allocation of $1M for provision of feminine hygiene products in schools, the Georgia Department of Education (DOE) created a distribution formula that satisfied the intention of elected officials to begin addressing the issue of period poverty faced by Georgia students. In August, this formula was approved by the State Board of Education and the expectation was that the money would begin flowing. However, shortly after the State BOE approval of fund distribution, Governor Kemp announced his expectation that all state agencies cut spending by 4% in the 2019-2020 budget. Kemp’s announcement meant DOE had to hold the new funding while determining what the 4% cuts meant for allocations.

During the interim, while distribution was being finalized, Georgia STOMP worked with DOE to develop language and information that would be sent “with the money” when distribution did occur. We are thrilled to announce that on Wednesday, November 30th an email was sent to all Georgia Superintendents relating how much money was allocated for their district and explaining the intended purpose of the money and best methods for distribution, a document we were happy to see contained Georgia STOMP’s “voice.”

Attached is the FY20 Feminine Hygiene Grant Direct Certification for the funding. Many will notice the amounts in this document are different than the August document posted here. There are two reasons for this — first, this spreadsheet reflects the 4% cut in the $1M allocation, and second, the August document erroneously calculated funding based on all students in a system vs allocating based on the number of low income students in a school system.

Please use this information to contact your school leadership in order to fast-track the conversion of this money into period products placed in the hands of students who need them! If you have any questions about the distribution or can give us feedback about the implementation in your school system, please contact us at georgiastomp@gmail.com!

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