The bill requires the Department of Public Health (DPH) commissioner, by July 1, 2022, to (1) set guidelines on how free menstrual products (i.e., tampons and sanitary napkins) may be provided without stigmatizing the individuals requesting or seeking them and (2) post the guidelines on the department’s website. (It makes a technical change by replacing the term “feminine hygiene” with the term “menstrual” throughout the statutes.)

The bill also requires certain government agencies and public or private organizations to provide free menstrual products to the individuals they serve without stigmatizing them, in accordance with the published DPH guidelines.

York Correctional Institution

By law, York Correctional Institution must provide free menstrual products to inmates upon request. However, starting July 1, 2023, the bill requires the institution to do so without stigmatizing the individuals requesting the products, in accordance with the DPH guidelines.

Other Agencies and Organizations

Under the bill, starting July 1, 2023, certain other agencies and organizations must start providing free menstrual products without stigmatizing the individuals requesting the products, in accordance with the DPH guidelines, as follows:

1. public higher education institutions, in at least one designated and accessible central location on each campus, and they must post notice of the location on their websites;
2. school districts acting by the Department of Correction (DOC) commissioner, to individuals confined in any DOC institution and attending a school within the district, upon request and as soon as practicable, in a quantity appropriate to the person’s health needs;
3. public or private homeless shelters that receive grants from the housing commissioner, in each restroom that is accessible to residents; and
4. domestic violence emergency shelters that receive state funding in each restroom that is accessible to residents.

Additionally, local and regional boards of education must do so starting September 1, 2023, in women’s restrooms, all-gender restrooms, and at least one men’s restroom, that are accessible to students in grades three through 12 in each school.