A bill that would make free disposable menstrual products available in all elementary and secondary public schools serving students grades six to 12 in Massachusetts recently passed through the Education Committee and is awaiting a vote by the House or Senate.

“For instance, most people would balk at the idea of having to pay for toilet paper in a public restroom,” wrote Sarah Groustra in The Sagamore, Brookline’s student newspaper, in April of 2018. “Tampons and other menstrual sanitation products, however, are not considered essential.”