OCEANSIDE ---- Almost a decade ago, the Oceanside Unified School District launched a uniform policy that put nearly every student in grades K-8 in crisp, navy blue bottoms and gleaming white tops.

Today, it's fair to say that things didn't turn out as officials had hoped.

While a small number of schools have embraced the uniform policy, many elementary schools and all of the district's three middle schools have watched it fall to the wayside, either through lack of enforcement on campuses or support from parents, said district board member Emily Wichmann.

"This is not what we envisioned," said Wichmann, who helped create a fund-raising campaign in 1996 to buy uniforms for parents who couldn't afford to buy them for their schoolchildren.

The district does not keep track of how many students are in uniform, although Wichmann said you see them on students "here and there."

At Ivey Ranch Elementary, for example, it's rare to spot a student on the playground at recess who is not in uniform. The same holds true for Nichols Elementary.

Principal Faye Wilson said there's no definitive explanation for how Ivey Ranch managed to keep students in uniform despite the trend at other campuses.

"I really haven't anything," she said. "It's the culture here. You go to Ivey Ranch, you wear a uniform. The parents here really support this."

Students don't have to wear uniforms, according to state laws that block school districts from making the uniforms mandatory, and, in fact, many of the district's parents chose not to put their children in a uniform.

That doesn't mean the district isn't still pushing the program.

District reinforces policy

Every year, the district attempts to re-boot its uniform policy, according to spokeswoman Laura Chalkley, who noted that the superintendent refers to the policy in his fall 2004 newsletter to parents.

The newsletter informed parents about the district's "Dress for Success" program, which has encouraged students to wear the uniforms since the board passed the policy in 1996.

Uniforms help students focus their attention on their schoolwork, and not what their neighbor is wearing, the letter states. Statistically speaking, it continues, uniforms help curb violence and gang activity. Moreover, local organizations can provide free uniforms to families that can't afford them.

In a district in which roughly half of the students are considered poor ---- based on the number of students on the subsidized lunch program ---- offering free uniforms helps banish the anti-uniform argument that parents may not be able to buy the required duds, officials have said.

These days, making sure every student has access to a uniform is keeping volunteers busy.

Pat Gault, a volunteer for the Assistance League of North Coast, spends several hours twice a week at the district's warehouse filling orders from elementary schools where parents have applied for assistance in obtaining uniforms for their children.

As of Thursday morning, less than two months into the school year, she had distributed 498 uniforms, which were purchased in bulk thanks to a number of annual fund-raisers through the Assistance League and the Oceanside Education Foundation. The current tally is very close to the 560 uniforms she gave out throughout the last school year, she said.

The increase could be attributed to a growing interest in uniforms among parents of kindergartners, said Gault, who has had to order more of the tiny sizes to fit younger students.

"I think people are starting to see that this really helps kids in school," she said. "It's good for a child's self-esteem, so somebody else doesn't have better clothes than they do. It's the same (clothes) regardless of income."

While the uniforms could become a growing fad at elementary schools, officials are not banking on the same success at middle schools.

Middle schools abandon uniforms

Within the first five years of the policy, an increasing number of middle school parents elected to take their children out of the uniform program by filling out forms.

That left administrators in a rule-enforcement bind, with officials constantly checking to see if students had been formally taken out of the program by their parents before issuing students a detention for breaking the uniform dress code.

"The parents would say that they're tired of fighting with their children over clothing," said Superintendent Ken Noonan.

In 2001, the district announced that middle-schoolers would not have to wear the uniform. Since then, the uniform battle has been replaced with the struggle to make sure students aren't wearing inappropriate clothing.

According to the district's dress code, students must not wear clothes that are ill-fitting ---- meaning not too tight and not too baggy ---- and clothing must not reveal undergarments, or display inappropriate messages or logos.

Students who break the code are usually forced to change into a T-shirt or other gym attire provided by the school, or have their parents bring in a change of clothes.

Following the dress code, it seems, is more of a problem among middle-schoolers who have older siblings or friends at the high schools. In the high schools, officials have their own issues with the dress code among more fashion-focused teenagers, said Martha Munden, principal at King Middle School, which is around the corner from El Camino High.

"We do worry sometimes about our younger kids mixing in with the older kids," she said.

Contact staff writer Louise Cannon at (760) 901-4151 or lcannon@nctimes.com.