Still potty training? Keep your kids at home, Pasco schools tell parents
Tampa Bay Times | Jeffrey S. Solochek | May 5, 32026
As parents register their children for fall kindergarten classes, Pasco County school officials have a message.
If your kids can’t use the restroom independently, and they don’t have special physical needs preventing it, they aren’t welcome in district classrooms.
“We want our students to be in school,” superintendent John Legg said Tuesday. “However, it is not the kindergarten teachers’ responsibility to change the diapers of their students.”
The district’s assistant superintendents for elementary schools said the problem spans the county, and it’s grown in prevalence since classrooms reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic. They estimated about 10 or so children per school arrive not properly prepared to use the toilet.
School board chairperson Colleen Beaudoin said she had been stunned to learn from several principals about the increase in students who still wear diapers. Board member Jessica Wright said she’s received reports from teachers that some cases persist into first grade.
“We’re not talking about accidents,” Legg said.
Most parents respond cooperatively when confronted with the situation, he said, taking their children home for training and slowly reintroducing them to the classrooms.
A handful act like it’s the school’s problem, though, Legg said.
It is, he said, but only to the extent that it makes unreasonable demands on teachers and distracts the majority of students from their lessons.
District leaders don’t accept that.
“We are not going to argue with parents,” Legg said. “It is not a suggestion that students can use the restroom independently. It is a requirement.”
He and others acknowledged that some children have developmental delays, and some have disabilities that prevent them from using the restroom. They are not the target, they stressed, adding that the district would look at ways to ensure those children are placed in the proper environment to meet their needs.
The issue is parents who demand the right to rear their children as they choose, but refuse to take responsibility for certain norms.
The answer is straightforward, Beaudoin said. “Parents have to potty train their kids.”
